Any Thematic Content (Horror of War)

Horror of War
The main theme in the All Quiet on the Western Front is the appalling cruelty of war that presents all the scenes in the book. Unlike previous books on war, All quite on the Western Front seemed to idealize characteristics of war highlighting on themes like honor, glory, patriotic responsibility and exploration, this book aims at demonstrating war as it was essentially experienced, restoring the idealistic depiction of glory as well as heroism with an absolutely unidealistic image, butchery and insignificance. In several approaches, the World War 1 (WW1) required this portrayal compared to any previous war- it totally changed the way human beings perceived military war with its catastrophic degrees of hostility and massacre, its skirmishes continued for many months and its dreadful technological development ( including trenches, machine guns and poison gas), which enhanced death toll. In addition, All Quite on the Western Front embellishes World War aspects and depicts insensitive fright and savagery of war with persistent focus on physical and emotional harm that it occasions. The book ends with death of almost all characters, portraying devastating effects of the war on young generation forced to fight.
Consequences of war on the soldiers
Since Remarque’s book is based on soldiers in the battle, it highlights on the devastating consequences of the war on the soldiers. Moreover, these soldiers are subjected to intense physical threats, because they could be reduced into ashes in spur of a moment. These constant physical threats also act as a continuous attack on the mental strain, forcing soldiers to deal with primitive, intuitive fear throughout each wake moment. Consequently, soldiers are forced to survive in terrible conditions; dirty, drenched ditches with rats, lice and corpses. In most cases, soldier lack basic needs (such as food, clothing, sleep and health care). They are also obligated to cope with regular and sudden deaths of their colleagues and friends, mostly in close proximity and in very brutal design. All Quite on the Western Front depicts all the impacts of these appalling conditions as a crippling burden of fear and misery. Although, this seems hard, soldiers can use disconnect as the only appropriate way to survive without necessarily suppressing their psychological and understanding conditions they lead. According to the author, this psychological disconnection has a substantial effect on soldiers, for example, Paul was not in position to accept a future devoid of and fails to memorize how he believed before joining the army. Additionally, he loses the ability to communicate with his family. Soldiers no longer have time to grief, for instance when Kemmerich was almost dying, his colleagues were contemplating on how will take over his boots. Other soldiers, nevertheless, the author depicts strong ties of allegiance as well as friendship due to shared experiences of the battle. These min...