Baumer The Sense Of Home example essay topic

All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Remarque is a novel dealing with one young mans transformation from an average person into a hardened man that eventually turns away from the society that he once was a part of. Remarque wrote this novel to emphasize the disorder and chaos that is created in war. This sense of disorder was felt within the soldiers as well as the civilians that have no part in the fighting. Civilians often had a glamorous portrayal of war that was preached to many but it soon became a harsh reality, the horror for the many that saw it.

The novel centers on a young German soldier, Paul Baumer and his experiences throughout a period of World War I. The reality of the war and the horror that it truly is transformed Baumer very quickly. There were many false pretenses that Paul had been taught growing up in a "Hitleristic's society. He quickly adapted to war and the ways of it. Baumer transformed from a rather innocent romantic to a hardened and somewhat bitter veteran. He was changed for the worse by the war. He became disaffiliated with all icons or people that had been the foundation of his pre-enlistment days.

Communication with his parents, friends, elders, as well as the recollection of school, and religion were lost. This rejection of society is fueled by the realization that the pre-enlistment society simply can not understand the reality of the Great War. Baumer then realizes that the only ones that can understand him are his comrades in the trenches. They become his new society and war his way of life. Remarque shows Baumer's disaffiliation from traditional society by showing his views on the language used by both the pre-enlisted society and the post-enlisted society. Baumer either chooses to or can not communicate with truthfully with the people from the pre-enlisted time in his life.

As he becomes more alienated from this norm, he begins to find comfort in his communicating with his post-enlisted society. This society embraces him as he embraces it; there is a feeling of family amongst the comrades. In the novel there is a point where Baumer is pinned down in a shell hole and becomes disoriented and has a panic attack. He says "Tormented, terrified, in my imagination, I see the grey, implacable muzzle of a rifle which moves noiselessly before him whichever was I try to turn my head' (P. 184-185). He is unable to snap out of the trance until he hears voices behind him.

He recognizes the voices and realizes that he is close to his comrades in his own trench. Baumer begins to comprehend that the reviving effects of his comrades' words were much stronger and powerful than anything that his family or friends could ever say to him. He notices that the words of the traditional world have no meaning, and the words of his comrades have more meaning than they are even aware of. Baumer ponders the effects of words for a long time. He begins to look deeper into the language of both worlds. He comes to the assumption that the pre-enlistment society has misled many including him.

He noticed that teachers and parents had used words passionately at times to persuade him and other young men to enlist in the war effort. Baumer admits that "fast talking' adults duped him and the others who had enlisted. Parents were among the worst of these talkers. They would even be ready to use the word "coward' to make their point heard. By remembering those days, Baumer as a result of his war experiences, sees just how shallow and empty people of that society can use language. The subject that was talked about always protected the shallow and emptiness of the conversation.

Usually the topic of conversation was "ones love for their country. ' Early in the war, Baumer remembers the authority figures of the past taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, but he soon realized that death-throes are stronger. Teachers and parents would use expressions such as that we were not mutineers, deserters, nor were we cowards and that was why we had to enlist in the services. "We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see' (P. 17).

He felt that the expressions used by that society did not reflect the reality of war and of one's participation in it. On leave one time, Baumer returned home to visit his family. As he arrived home, it became very apparent that he had communication problems with the members of the home front. He saw the reason being that their military experiences were limited or non-existent and they just would not understand what he has gone through.

When he went to his house, he was completely overwhelmed with joy and happiness that he could not even speak, he could only cry. His parents were very distant towards him. There was an uncomfortable feeling in the house and not much was said. At one point his mother asked, "Was it very bad out there?' when he answers, he lies to her. His answer is "no its not so very bad, there are usually a lot of us together so it is not so bad. ' Baumer realizes that describing the horror that he lives with would only worry his mother and cause her more grief than is necessary, any way she would not understand the situation even if he did truthfully answer the question.

Even in trying to use words to protect his mother, Baumer creates a separation between the two of them. The communication break down is just as bad between him and his father. His father pushes him to discuss the war and what has happened to him out of curiosity but does not realize the pain that this causes for his son. Again Baumer realizes that the truth would hurt and only enlarge the communication gap between the two if he tells him the truth, so Baumer lies again. There is nothing that his father enjoys more than hearing about the fight. He does not know that it is hard for a man to speak of such things.

Baumer thinks the war is too big to put into words and the events that he has seen are too horrific that he would rather save his father from such thoughts. The home front did not give Baumer the sense of home that he was looking for. He tried to get some feeling of the quiet life that he remembered. When he went to visit the mother of his fallen comrade Kemmerich, he separates even more from that sense of truth and home. Kemmerich's mother asks him how the war is and wants to know if her son suffered. He assured her that death was immediate and he felt no pain.

As he did with his own parents, so he protected Kemmerichs'. She asks him to swear by everything that is sacred to him, which meant God as far as she was concerned. He did and it seemed to be too easy, but he realizes at that point that nothing is sacred to him any more. He was completely unwilling to be honest with any member of that society as well as God. Baumer searches for something that will allow him to feel apart of the pre-enlistment society that he left. The members of that world had no effect on making him feel any more comfortable, it was his old schoolbooks that symbolized that older, more contemplative, less military world that he remembers and that he wants to be a part of.

He wants to feel the unconstrained feeling that he once had when he turned the pages of a textbook in a boring class. Baumer never finds this peacefulness; rather he finds the urge to get back to the war and his comrades that were still there. Remarque wrote a great novel, I would not consider this to be a universal novel. This shows the torments and terror of war but I do not think that you have a full feeling of the truth in it. Paul Baumer is a young man thrown into a world in which he thinks is a glorious thing but realizes that lies and trickery have led him to where he is. After all that Baumer goes through, he is left with the point of view that: war is war.

It can not be defined; it can not even be discussed with any accuracy. It has no sense of feeling or personal emotion involved. War is its own being that is fueled by hatred. This is what Remarque's purpose was in writing this novel, to show the disorder and chaos created by war. 343.