All Quiet on Western Front

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All Quiet on the Western Front
Gertrude Stein refers to the soldiers as a lost generation because they missed out on their best years fighting in the war. The soldiers would go to war at the age of eighteen and would not experience a normal life until the war was over. The battle was characterized by killing that left bad memories on the soldiers' minds. Therefore, such factors made their lives miserable because they could not see any happiness abut life. This paper will outline how Stein's described situation related to the life of Paul and his friends.
The main reason why Paul and his friends consider themselves to be a lost generation is the negative experiences they had during the war. Paul joined the war when he did not know what had happened. Many deaths are bound to occur during a war, starvation, and other challenges that make the soldiers' lives miserable. Paul did not have the slightest idea of what would have happened when he got to war. Therefore, all the emotional trauma he went through worsened his life because he was not prepared. When individuals are about to experience trauma, it is important to prepare themselves mentally. Such preparation would prevent an individual from being severely affected by traumatizing events. This was not the case for Paul, and therefore, he feels like a part of a lost generation due to the traumatizing experiences during the war.
Paul and his friends feel like a part of a lost generation who believe all they know about is war. When Paul is on leave, his headmaster tells him that he could go to Paris for further studies because he knows about the war. This could be true because Paul has spent his most precious time in the war. He considers himself an older adult, yet he is still young. Paul considers himself not young anymore due to the traumatizing activities during the war. The soldiers have experienced extreme situations that older civilians have not experienced before, which qualifies them not to be young anymore. Pula and his friends are already messed up emotionally, and the only thing they can do better in life is by being soldiers. The young soldiers have spent so much of their time staring at death, and therefore, life back on the streets would be meaningless (Berkley, 72). Young people are always looking forward to living the years ahead of them. If a young person considers life meaningless due to the traumatizing events they have been through, they qualify to become a lost generation. These individuals will never view life the same as before going to war. Such means that they will never have the enthusiasm to live, making them a lost generation.
The war has greatly altered Paul and his friends. They are no longer the naïve people they used to be before joining the fight. An example of a scenario that shows how much the soldiers have been affected by conflict is when Paul goes home on leave. Paul wishes never to have come home at the end of his leave period. The changes he has undergone as a soldier makes him feel different from the rest of the civilians. Paul regrets coming home because he feels more comfortable with the other soldiers at war. The other soldiers have been through similar ...