Nationalism and Patriotism in World War I - Assignment Example

The novel conveyed various themes including nationalism and patriotism which will be the focus of this exposition. The author shatters any idealistic predeterminations that prospective readers may develop in the course of reading the novel in his portrayal of all possible ghastly consequences in war participation. Yet again, the emphasis of this treatise is directed towards “nationalism” and “patriotism” and their corresponding examples as exemplified in the novel. The reader is likewise informed to all new sorts of attacks in the war which even more procured the writer the impetus to write this novel.

Nationalism Nationalism oftentimes connotes the unwavering commitment and loyalty of a person towards his mother homeland. In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, nationalism is introduced through the encouragement of Paul’s teacher, Kantorek, to join the German army shortly after the commencement of the World War 1. Paul recalled how Kantorek would constantly push them to join the war by subtle forms of bullying and by verbalizing patriotic passages towards them, thereby criticizing their spinelessness.

Albeit Kantorek expressed 2 nationalism by encouraging the young men to enlist themselves in the war, Kantorek was not among those people who belonged to the generation relatively entreated to battle for their homeland. In the novel it says “For us young men of twenty everything is extraordinarily vague, for Kropp, Muller, Leer, and me, for all of us whom Kantorek calls the “Iron Youth”” (Wheen 1929), people who offer their lives in order to serve the political interest of their leaders.

This thereby implies that not all nationalistic goals are motivated by acceptable intents. Paul felt acrimonious as to how they cannot defy the calls of their conscience and about the thoughts of nationalistic contributions pleaded of them which eventually compelled them to join the war; nevertheless, Paul still was able to utilize it in humanitarian cause. Nationalism transcended beyond its common description, that is loyalty to your homeland, when Paul reconciled with the Russian soldiers after realizing that they do not war against each other because they are enemies but because they were ordered to do so.

Furthermore, Paul altered his customary understanding about nationalism as manifested by his feeling of remorse after slaying a person for the first time. He felt numb and haunted after seeing the soldier gasping for air and slowly dying. The nationalism portrayed in the novel projects it in different angles. It did not only focus on pristine loyalty to his homeland but nationalism by understanding why they were in war and realizing how they are used as a “marionette” leverage of their political leaders.

Patriotism In deliberating on a certain novel and its undertones and meanings, we find nationalism and patriotism as one of the most common themes when it comes to war novels. However, in the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, it does not focus on the triumph of war or any 3 undesirable consequences that one who engages in battle would encounter. The novel is just a simple exposition of how war can separate a person from his civil life, particularly a person who was involved in the war itself.

The novel depicts truthful accounts of the actual events that took place in the war scene and thereby added the traumatic effect of witnessing a dying person, hovering killer planes, a