The Difficulty of Healing in a World of Evil - Essay Example

Erich Maria Remarque was marshaled out of World War I in 1918 due to medical reasons; he went back home. There, he began life without much hope, and his existence changed forever. Before the war, he dreamt of becoming a concert pianist. However, as a result of the wounds he suffered in war, that dream had to be abandoned. In the course of the war, his mother died. Therefore, when he returned home, he had a chance to mourn and contemplate her life. Similar to many people in his generation, Remarque suffered postwar disillusionment as well as trauma (Remarque 153). Remarque’s book shows how war harms human beings including soldiers and how difficult it is for them to heal. The events of World War I would haunt Remarque for the remainder of his life. Besides, the lessons he got from the war would affect how he perceived and did things from that moment onwards. Repeatedly, Remarque would recall the war scenes and also visit postwar Germany to get subjects of his novels. Through his books, the whole world would understand what his generation went through. The critics, on the other hand, would treat his book kindly. Contemporary writers refer to his words because of the powerful message they contain regarding the inhumanness of the war that has surpassed modern technological warfare (Remarque 63). Physicians today know about post-traumatic stress disorder. In Remarque’s day, however, no one knew what it was or its effects. His perception, which was the general feeling of most of the soldiers fighting in his generation, gives the reader an in-depth understanding of the events that led to the alienation and displacement of his generation. His words resulted in rapid reactions in postwar Germany as well as positive responses from his critics. Despite the fact that Hitler’s Third Reich banned the ownership and reading of Remarque’s book, Western critics had a favorable eye for the novel. The book came before World War II, which was a time when military commanders foresaw the conclusion of international aggression (Remarque 67). Readers of Remarque’s book from the West used it to understand the post-traumatic stress that affected not only the German soldiers but also the French, American, British and Russian soldiers. It was something that was observed across different cultures and languages. In the aftermath of the Second World War, critics of Remarque dealt with existential alienation, realism and war profiteering that was written in Remarque’s book. Despite the effect that Remarque’s book has had on millions of people, the modern times have witnessed great catastrophes that give the inhumanity of war the additional technological breakthroughs that appear like a dream to Remarque’s generation (Remarque 13). For example, World War II, Vietnam, the Korean War and the Israeli Seven-Day War were fought with even more deadly weapons than were used in Remarque’s time. These included biological exterminations, the atomic bomb, and computerized missiles. This was different from the trench warfare and the hand-to-hand combat of the past because now one could kill millions of people just by pushing a button. Remarque commented that war was a dehumanizer. However, the book has a lot to say concerning the backdrop of a civilization that fashioned weapons that were impersonally fired and with the potential to cause mass destruction. Remarque’s views are evident from the tales of the soldiers in his book (Remarque 121). In the preface, Remarque begins his story with a purpose to tell all the generations of humanity the fact that even though some escaped, they were devastated by the war. In the whole story, the reader gets a feeling that Remarque’s generation underwent an event that would forever shut their opportunity to revisit the world of their childhood. In the beginning, Paul Baumer explains the difference that exists between his generation and his parents’ generation as well as that of the older soldiers. Prior to the war, these people had a life in which they felt secure and comfortable. However, Paul’s generation never got an opportunity to enjoy that life. Paul explains that their knowledge of life was limited to death. At the beginning of the story, everything that Paul knows is fear, horror, death and suffering. Most of them are only twenty years old. Kat says that the kid who gets seriously wounded in the fourth chapter is young and innocent. Due to their experiences in the war, they have no feelings and see no future because of their experiences during the war. Even if they had a future, Paul and his friends routinely try to imagine what their lives would have been. Paul says that he cannot understand the “worth having lain here in the muck for.” Albert, one of his friends, feels that the war has devastated their lives. He will end up in a hospital because of a leg amputation. Kropp, another soldier in their company, understands that they will never recover from the experiences of shells and bombs. They were young adults when the war broke out. Paul says about their world that “we had to shoot it to pieces” (Remarque 142). When on leave, Paul goes home, and he does not like the feeling he experiences in his heart. It is at this point he realizes that his life will never be the same. There is a wide rift between his parent and his past as well as between him and his parents. In chapter 6, he says that “I believe we are lost.” During his leave, he reads his books and childhood papers and acknowledges that he can never get his way back to that earlier Paul. The events at the front have made him doubt the compassion in human beings. He realizes that his contemporaries have the same feelings as the story approaches the end. He says, “all my generation is experiencing these things with me” (Remarque 14) The generation written about in the story feels much betrayed by their government, teachers and parents. The question they always ask is “why” they believed in what they learned in school and at home. Paul, as well as his friends, feels terrible when they realize that important protocol appears to be in the older generation. The myths regarding patriotism held by the older generation become obvious the moment Paul goes back home. One senior officer reprimands Paul for failing to salute him despite the fact that Paul has spent a great proportion of his life in the trenches fighting the enemy. Parents of Paul’s generation feel guilty for the experiences their children face. Paul indicates that German parents always call their children who fail to join the war as cowards. According to Paul, the parents should have been guides as well as mediators. Instead, they disappointed their children. He calls their parents “the wisest were just the poor and simple people.” They acknowledged that the war was a misfortune (Remarque 90). In chapter 1, Paul already realizes that his generation is very alone and fails to share the traditional values of its parents. The other group that also receives the blame are the teachers. While still at home, Paul hears the headmaster saying vain patriotic rhetoric, and he says that he understands more about what is happening in the war than Paul. He blames his schoolteacher Kantorek for the death of Joseph Behm. It was Kantorek who forced Behm to join the war. Paul imagined the fact that there were characters similar to Kantorek throughout the nation. Leer, who was gifted in mathematics, succumbs to a terrible wound and Paul cannot understand the benefits that his school mathematics will bring him in death. When Paul and his whole generation contemplate military protocol, their school teachers, and parents, they feel betrayed (Remarque 153). In the sixth chapter, Paul and his comrades encounter soldiers who have their noses cut off and their eyes poked out. Besides, their mouths and noses are stuffed with sawdust so that they suffocate. Their perception of death causes them to fight back like animals. They go to the extent of using spades to cleave faces. They also stab their enemies in the back with bayonets. Their disconnection from humanity is evident when new officers tremble, sob and become mad when they witness such scenes in the battle front. Remarque clearly thinks about the horror death when they witness scenes ravaged by war (Remarque 62). In conclusion, Remarque says that the novel will relate the story of a generation, who although may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war. Therefore, if words can explain what people feel is important in their hearts and makes them change the world, Remarque gives just such words in the novel. He expounds on the lost values, the lost generation as well as humanity. It is a story that should be read by all generations. Works Cited Remarque, Erich Maria, and Brian Murdoch. All Quiet on the Western Front. London: Jonathan Cape, 1994. Print. Read More