All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque will make you incredibly angry, sad, and depressed, and you would wish you could redo history.
Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque translated by Arthur Wesley Wheen
Published: January 1, 1928
Genre: Classics, Fiction, German, German Literature, Historical Fiction, Translated Works, War, World War I
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Trigger Warnings: Animal death, Death, Gore, Hospitalization, Surgery, Violence, War
Summary
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque takes us back to 1914, in the room full of German schoolboys, bright-eyed and full of dreams, are urged by their schoolmaster to join the ‘glorious war.’ Fueled by youthful passion, they sign up, imagining heroism and adventure. But the story quickly turns heart-wrenching as one boy becomes an ‘unknown soldier,’ confronting the harsh reality of life in the trenches.
Review
Brief Context: The Western Front was a battle involving France and Belgium (the Allied Powers) against Germany (the Central Power) during World War I. This front is infamous for its lengthy duration—lasting four years—and the tremendous loss of life it incurred. Over these four long years, the lines on both sides became almost impenetrable, resulting millions of deaths until the Allied Powers finally broke through, leading to the armistice, which marked Germany’s surrender in World War I.
As expected, this book is filled with graphic details of the horrors witnessed and endured during the war—the death and suffering in its varying stages.
“Shells, gas clouds, and flotillas of tanks – shattering, corroding, death. Dysentery, influenza, typhus – scalding, choking, death. Trenches, hospitals, the common grave – there are no other possibilities.”
However, what truly shook me are the many passages describing the soldiers’ dreams, apparitions, and the things they longed for in moments of despair during the worst situations a man could face. And them ultimately, giving up on these dreams, realizing they can only wish for something simple—just to survive.
“Ah! Mother, Mother! You still think I am a child – why can I not put my head in your lap and weep? Why have I always to be strong and self-controlled? I would like to weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child; in the wardrobe still hang short, boy’s trousers – it is such a little time ago, why is it over?”
At the end of this book, I was very angry. This book highlights how futile and absurd war truly is. The soldiers, without having to do anything with the war and what caused it, become inanimate objects, subjected to military strategies they cannot refuse. The war drained them so completely that, by its end, being alive or dead feels the same.
While the writing is not perfect and I often found myself reading seemingly redundant passages—perhaps due to the translation—it succeeds in bringing to life the things usually left untold in war documentaries. What it feels like to be in the battlefront and remembering the life you have lost while still breathing which left me shattered.
Final Thoughts
In just a few pages, this book captures the tragic truths of war, forcing you to confront how absurd humans can be and how many poor choices we have made in history—and continue to make today.
I recommend this to everyone and learn for yourself that: war is absurd, and no one should have to die in it.
If you haven’t read this, go read it, and then come back here and let me know what you think! 🧐
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