A War With Different Enemies :: essays research papers

A War With Different Enemies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  War novels previous to All Quiet On The Western Front, tend to romanticize the real conditions of the war, and the troubles faced by the soldiers. However, All Quiet On The Western Front, not only does not romanticize the terrible experiences of World War I, it also provides the reader with accurate and detailed portrayal of the horrors of the War. The author, Erich Maria Remarque does this by emphasizing several themes. The first theme is how the war affects each soldier, the second is the horrors of war, and the third is nationalism. Each of these themes allows the reader to enter deep into the minds of the soldiers who were fighting the war. At the beginning of the novel the author states that:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.† (Remarque 4)Even by this beginning quote it is revealed that the author did not write this book to criticize, or to accuse, but he wrote the book to tell the story â€Å"of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.† (Remarque 4)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book in my opinion, accurately portrays how the war affects the lives of soldiers during World War 1. It also shows how each of these young soldiers had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they enlisted in the war. They were all young and they were all naà ¯ve. They were fighting for what they thought was their country. They fought for their families and for their freedom. Later they realized that they did not fight an â€Å"enemy†; they fought against people like them: a person with a family and a person with a life back home. This is evident in chapter four when Paul says: â€Å"At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years.† (Remarque 28) As Paul describes this he paints a good picture of what happened when they first encountered battle, and what happened when they realized what they were really up against. Using