Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Words: 734
Pages: 3

“The War to End All Wars” is one of the many names World War I was named due to having the most bloodshed in our history and claiming over 16 million lives. In the war novel, All Quiet On The Western Front, German writer Erich Maria Remarque writes of Paul Baumer and his comrades going through many psychological effects at such a young age. Due to experiencing many traumatic events during World War I Paul Baumer suffers from loss of trust, feeling detached from others, and dehumanized.
Throughout the war, Paul Baumer and his comrades lose all trust on teachers, their military, and community due to persuading them to join at such a young age and the military making them fight battles they did not create. When Paul’s comrade Joseph Behm was not
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This made Paul and his comrades loss their trust on teachers due to them being their guides and safety instead they would push them to join war not realizing the horrors it would bring them. After Paul goes on leave he meets a “red cross sister” who serves him coffee and with much enthusiasm calls him “comrade” not knowing it makes Paul upset due to it being a name they called soldiers who were killed or wounded in the front. Paul loses trust for the sister simply because she does not know what soldiers have experienced in the war and only knowing what they have heard. Once Paul arrives home he walks down the streets and encounters his German-master who takes him to get drinks with the other masters and asks him how things are like in the front. When Paul goes into the bar he is greeted by a headmaster who asks him if he just came from the front and with humour tells him how the front has been treating them (Excellent, eh? Excellent?” (Remarque 166). Paul explains to him it would be better to be home than back at the front. Paul loses trust in his masters due to making fun of the war and not knowing the reality of what soldiers deal with daily in the front and the experiences