Alienation in All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

Alienation in All Quiet on the Western Front According to the Websters New World College Dictionary, alienation is 1. Separation, aversion, aberration. 2. estrangement or detachment. 3. Mental derangement insanity. The theme of All Quiet on the Western Front is about how World War I destroyed a generation of young men. It has taken from them the last of their childhood years, it has destroyed their faith in their elders, it has taught them an individual life is meaningless--and all it has given in return is the talent to appreciate basic physical pleasures. According to Paul, though, the men havent entirely lost human sensitivity theyre not as callous as they appeared in Chapter 1, wolfing great deal their dead companions rations. Its just that they must pretend to forget the dead otherwise they would go mad. Remarque includes discussions among Pauls group, and Pauls own thoughts while he observes Russian prisoners of war (Chapters 3, 8, 9) to show that no ordinary p eople benefit from a war. No matter what side a man is on, he is killing other men just kindred himself, people with whom he might even be friends at another time. But Remarque doesnt just tell us war is horrible. He also shows us that war is terrible beyond anything we could imagine. All our senses are assaulted we see newly dead soldiers and long-dead corpses tossed up together in a cemetery (Chapter 4) we hear the eldritch screaming of the wounded horses (Chapter 4) we see and smell three layers of bodies, swelling up and belching gases, dumped into a huge shell hole (Chapter 6) and we can almost pass the naked bodies hanging in trees and the limbs lying around the battlefield (Chapter 9). The crying of the horses is especially terrible. Horses have nothing to do with making war. Their bodies gleam beautifully as they parade along--until the shells strike them. To Paul, their dying cries represent all of nature accusing Man, the great destroyer. In later chapters P aul no longer mentions nature as an accuser but seems to suggest that nature is simply there--rolling steadily on through the seasons, paying no attention to the desperate cruelties of men to each other. This, too, shows the horror of war, that it is alone unnatural