ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

ERICH MARIA REMARQUE

The book 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque might be, in my opinion, the most powerful anti-war novel ever written. The story is narrated by a 19-year old, Paul Baumer, who enlists in the army along with his classmates who are pitted against the French just like a hatchling being pushed from the edge of a cliff even before it learns to fly. The book explores the experiences of a German soldier on the Western Front and describes how the war destroyed the generation he lived in. Paul considers himself to be a traveller watching his own life passing by, confused about what he would do once the war is over because he has seen too much, suffered too much and doesn't care about "taking the world by storm" anymore. He lets you in on the horrors of trenches, shelling, starvation, injuries, death - eventually realising that without the uniform and the rifle, the French farmer would look just like German peasant-like comrades, almost brothers. The book harps upon the trauma that these soldiers, mere schoolboys, go through when they see their friends dying right in front of their eyes. The scenes have been so articulately described that they leave an ever-lasting impression on your mind and you cannot help but ponder upon what those accurate illustrations made you see - the trench warfare and hospital scenes are particularly gut-wrenching. The book calls out the futility of wars right from its preface and is successful in convincing you that we don't need another war because we all know what wars do - crippling humanity each bullet at a time.