Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front example essay topic

War is often perceived as glamorous and an adventure to those we are involved. However, war destroys many people in many ways. After fighting in the trenches of World War I, Erich Maria Remarque and Wilfred Owen poured their experiences into works of literature. Even though Remarque and Owen were enemies during the war, identical themes can be found in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Owen's Insensibility and Asleep. A theme that runs parallel between the works of both men is that sometimes the living soldiers envy the dead. In the poem Asleep, Owen stated, He sleeps.

He sleeps less tremulous, less cold than we who must awake, and waking, say Alas! By this he means that the dead soldier can at last truly be at rest. The living soldiers must awake to the never-ending tortures of war. This theme can also be found in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. The soldiers look upon the dead and, in some cases, desire to be dead themselves. Death frees the soldier's minds, which are haunted by the plight of war.

Another common theme in the works is that of dehumanization. War strips soldiers of feelings such as compassion and ambition. This is evident in Owen's poem, Insensibility. Insensible in itself means lack of feeling. In the beginning of the poem states Happy are men who yet before they are killed can let their veins run cold. Whom no compassion f leers or makes their feet sore on the alleys cobbled with their brothers.

This statement provides strong imagery, men who completely free their mind of any compassion are thus able to walk on the ground covered by their dead comrades and think nothing of it. Owen also wrote, Happy are those who lose imagination: They have enough to carry with ammunition. Soldiers are far better off without any feeling or any imagination; the only thing that is important is the war. If they think of anything else, or let themselves be overcome by emotions, they will not survive. This theme is also very evident in All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque writes, We have lost all feeling for one another.

We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill. The soldiers are forced to lose all their feelings of compassion in order to kill another human being. The daily matters of survival take precedence over sentimentality. They carry on without thinking, and if they should stop for a second to think about what they are doing, then they will die. The soldiers become animals.

There are many references to this reduction in the novel. The soldiers are referred to as animals, beasts, cows, swines, and many more names. They could not to do otherwise, if they d welled on things and let their emotions take over them, they would not last. Another common theme between both works is that of chance and not knowing what is to come, and the torment from that. In both All Quiet on the Western Front and Insensibility, the word Chance is highlighted and almost referred to as a person who decides whether a person is survives or not.

In Insensibility, Owen says, Dullness best solves the tease and doubt of shelling, and Chance's strange arithmetic. In chapter six of All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque writes, The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in suspense of uncertainty. Over us, Chance hovers. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall. It is Chance that makes us indifferent.

Chance determines much of their luck or misfortune. This Chance also often drives the soldiers to insanity because of its great uncertainty. Both Remarque and Owen sought to reveal the truths of war, and to cease the commons beliefs that war was glamorous. The war killed thousands of men, and in most cases, they were young boys. And if a soldier somehow survived, the traumatic impact of the war destroyed their minds. It drove many to insanity and they will never be able to escape it.

Both authors began their works by declaring that their writing was about war, and the misfortune of war. This is just a few of the themes common between both writers. However, they are many more that can be found. The experiences of war were all the same, no matter which side of the line you were on.