Last Thoughts Remarque example essay topic

The introductory paragraph of All Quiet on the Western Front states that the book's purpose is "neither to be an accusation nor a confession". Remarque never actually says that the book is not to condemn. In fact, that is exactly what All Quiet is -- a condemnation. It is quite true that Remarque never accuses either side or makes any confession, but he does in fact condemn war altogether. In a critical response to All Quiet, Morris Eksteins says that "All Quiet was not a book about the events of the war -- it was not a memoir -- but an angry postwar statement about the effects of the war on the young generation that lived through it", (Eksteins 336). Eksteins is correct in saying this because an "angry postwar statement" is in essence a condemnation, and Remarque does set out to convince readers that the young men of this generation, as a result of the war, have been ruined.

The novel shows the digression of the soldiers from idealistic young men with hopes and ambition for the future to young men with the hearts and minds of old men bombarded by the tragedies, the horrors, and the realities of war. At the end of Chapter One, Paul is remembering his old schoolmaster, Kantor ek, calling his generation the "Iron Youth". Such an idealistic title at one time to these young men was an inspiration, but even at the very start of their experiences it quickly became a mockery. Looking back after the death of their comrade K emmerich, Paul, Kropp, and Muller reflect bitterly, "Yes, that's what they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth!

We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk". From the start of the war, these young men were robbed of their idealism, and already their ideas of the future and their places in it became distorted.

For older men it was different because for them it was "but an interruption. They [were] able to think beyond it. We [the young soldiers], however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a wasteland", (20). As the novel progresses, the reader sees the "Iron Youth" become more and more disillusioned, and one by one the reader sees the "Iron Youth" go out of existence. Eksteins critical article quotes Remarque in 1928.

He says, "The war... had shattered the possibility of pursuing what society would consider a normal existence", (Eksteins 337). As Paul drifts further and further from that "normal existence", Remarque gives the reader glimpses of Paul trying to reach out and re-embrace his old thoughts and emotions and reconnect with the society he once knew. For example, Remarque shows Paul's descent from his previous "normal existence" in chapter six. Paul says, "We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation", (113). This just shows what the young men are becoming.

Then, in an attempt to regain himself when he goes home, Paul sits in his room and tries to recapture the feelings of his youth, but is unsuccessful. He cannot even communicate to his family the reality of it all. At every attempt to return to his idealism, Paul is reminded of his military conditioning. Throughout the novel the reader sees Paul searching for balance between the two worlds which ultimately causes his ruin.

The passage on page 194 provides an excellent example of this. Paul becomes frightened by his thoughts which are wavering between his compassion for the prisoners and what he knows to be true. He says, "I am frightened: I dare think this way no more. This way lies the abyss. It is not now the time but I will not lose these thoughts, I will keep them, shut them away until the war is ended". Again and again Paul speaks of his ruin and the ruin of his generation, so the reader can hardly be left with any other thoughts after reading All Quiet.

The last thoughts Remarque leaves the reader with repeat this theme in the last chapter. Before Paul dies his thoughts are, "Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more. And men will not understand us -- for the generation that grew up before us... already had a home and a calling... and the generation that has grownup after us will be strange to us and push us aside... the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin", (294). So, in showing the disconnection and confusion these young soldiers came to experience, Remarque successfully shows how this "Iron Youth" fell into ruin.

Not only does Remarque speak of this particular generation, but he transcends that and applies this theme to all soldiers in all wars. In doing so, Remarque condemns the institution of war, while not condemning either side or making any accusation or confession.