“War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr). During World War I many people joined the war to have money to provide for their family, not knowing what they were getting themselves into. The “Lost Generation” was what people called those who grew up during the war, which played a vital role in not just the ways that they were viewed by others, but the way they thought of themselves. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, war degraded the innocence of youth into animal-like beings. Paul, the main character, sacrifices everything in his life, for nothing in return, except a life of horror and misery. Throughout the war Paul and his comrades lose their sense of hope, their sense of humanity, and sense of purpose in the world.
Initially, before Paul and his friends joined the war, they wanted to get out of school as fast as possible and longed for the respect associated with being older. To their schoolmaster, they are considered “Iron Youth”, but they don’t like that association. During their first few weeks in the war, Paul and his friend realize that joining the war may not have been the smartest choice after all. Trying to cope with their longing for home and their innocent childhood, Paul exclaims “Our early life is cut off from the moment we came here, and that without our lifting a hand. We often try to look back on it and to find an explanation, but never quite succeed” (Remarque 19). What might sound like a good experience at first, undoubtedly negatively affected them in return. When Paul and his friends joined the military, without doing a thing, they were stripped of their identity and connection to the things that they loved. That has always been the notion of the military, but when trapped by blind nationalism from their schoolmaster, there was no turning back. Joining the war is not an easy choice to make and the fact that Paul didn’t realize how he was tricked by false information, truly takes a toll on him throughout the war. Paul struggles to find the sole reason why he joined the military, cutting himself off from his past and trying to cope with his life choices. This is the reason why nationalism played a key role in the increase of military enlistment during World War I people didn’t realize the truth about what others were telling them regarding the war and joining the military. The people whom Paul once considered to be his friends are now his comrades in war. When Paul and his comrades are reflecting on their time in the military, Paul says, “We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life...We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war” (87). At this very moment, Paul and his comrades realize that they are not youth anymore. Growing up as an innocent child is about striving and dreaming about the future. Now in war, the only future that they can think about is surviving another day. That sense of hope for Paul and his comrades is no longer, only thinking about the ideals of survival. As Paul said, “We don’t want to take the world by storm”(87), rather one day at a time. This idea of not thinking about the future truly holds Paul and his comrades back from any sense of hope. This causes them to fall into a hopeless daily cycle and experience the horrific ideas and philosophies of war. Before enlisting in the war, they were just starting to love their lives and had hopes and dreams for the future, but once they got their guns, they had no choice, but to shoot their hopes and dreams into pieces. Now, all comrades are the same, with little that sets them apart, constantly trying to grasp and cherish the last bit of their identity that they still have. This is what keeps these comrades from emotionally surviving the war every day. Without one spark to fuel their hope, they cannot hold up during the war, nor maintain their sanity.
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After being sucked into the horrors of war, Paul and his comrades lose their attachment to their family and their grasp of humanity. Sitting in the trenches when no shots are ordered to be fired, all they can do is sit still and grapple with their emotions, attempting to cope with the horrors that fester their inner spirit. This moment of silence is especially hard for Paul because he constantly recollects life’s hardships, which takes an enormous toll on Paul’s inner self because this is something that he doesn’t usually do often. Reflecting on the past and trying to accept what he can’t recover from his once innocent self. Paul acknowledges the truth about himself and his comrades “We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost” (123). At this point in Paul’s life in the war, he feels that he no longer has a sense of purpose. After being heavily tormented by the war, Paul and his comrades are completely worn out and they believe that there is nothing that they haven’t seen before. Paul and his comrades have experienced more death in one day, than others not in the war experience in a lifetime. Though these boys are young, they feel old, due to all that they have gone through and the intense strength and wisdom that is needed to survive the war. To Paul, his conglomeration of experiences can only be described as “lost”, which ironically directly correlates with the term that others called these types of comrades during the war, “The Lost Generation”. Although it is a simple term, Paul and his comrades truly feel that they are lost and are incapable of breaking free from the horrors of war, which masks their identity, the only thing that encourages them to fight one more day. By now, Paul and his comrades do not care about the life stories that they have stripped from their enemies and no longer see their enemies as human. Paul recognizes that “We have become wild beasts...we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, and be revenged…If your father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb into him” (Pn). Paul and his comrades now are no longer truly immersed in the idea of war, but rather in the ideals of survival. To them, survival is greater than the idea of family or anything else that they used to cherish and love. They are in the mindset that they can’t properly distinguish between another being and their own family or comrade. It has come to the point when this blindness is affecting not just the way that they look at the war, but the way that they view their purpose in the world.
After “living the war” for a great deal of time, Paul and his surviving comrades feel as if they know nothing except for war. This prevents them from continuing their life from before the war, as they are constantly trying to find a motive and a purpose for continuing to live. By the time Paul returns home on leave during the war, he feels no connection to the things that he previously loved. Paul currently is unable to physically recognize a place that he can call “home” and feel that he is safe and at ease. Paul time and time again tries to convince himself that he is not currently at war and that everything is okay when Paul “say[s] over to [him]self: 'You are at home; you are at home.' But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I can find nothing of myself in all these things. There is a distance, a veil between us” (pn). Although coming home for a break from war might sound like a good thing to most, it feels like torture to Paul. Coming back to what Paul once called home is harder for Paul than actually staying in the dreadful trenches. Coming “home” and distancing himself from his family of comrades that he feels a true connection to, is the hardest for Paul because in war he and his childhood friend all are experiencing the same thing. Coming home, no one can understand or even imagine what Paul went through. This left Paul sitting alone and attempting to cope with his overflowing emotions and experiences, having no one to empathize with or support him. What Paul once considered a safe space, now feels no different than the dreadful and mellow atmosphere in the trenches. Paul cannot recognize that he is currently not in the war and feels a disconnect from his earlier life before the war. The feeling of not belonging results in a feeling of no purpose in the world and no desire to live life. Having this stranger-like perception, constantly diminishes and corrodes Paul’s connection to his family, distancing himself from what he felt used to matter most. By the time Paul is the last one left from his comrades whom he felt a true connection with, Paul is left with mountains on his shoulders trying to find one little spark of hope. At this point, Paul is helpless and feels that he has no meaning or purpose to live. Paul would much rather die than live with these horrors that are engraved into the roots of his identity. This scar is one that he will have to live with every day, a tragic experience that can never be undone. Paul lies down and says “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear” (295). At this point, when Paul lost everything and has hit rock bottom point in his life, he demonstrates that he doesn’t even have a spark of hope inside him, due to giving his life and inner spirit solely to the war. Paul feels that nothing more can be taken from him because he has nothing left to give. Paul has lost everything and at this very moment, he realizes that his hopes for his future before the war, can now never be truly fulfilled. Whatever motivation to push forward he ever had, has now been drained, never to be regained again. Paul no longer fears war because the enemy cannot take anything else from him, a horror he once dreaded.
From the whole spirited “iron youth” to the embittered “stone-age-veterans” of the lost generation, Paul has lost everything in life and all he got in return was living in his misery. “It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered” (Mary E. Pearson). Every dream Paul had ever had, had been taken away from him the moment he stepped on the front. War has stripped Paul and his comrades of their humanity, transforming them into animal-like beings, willing to kill their friend for survival. War changes people and that is a fact. Paul and his comrades no longer can live their lives without a struggle, due to their forever-taken innocence, hope, and feeling of purpose in the world.
Work Cited
- “War, What Is It Good For? - How Should Christians Deal With War?” Hope 103.2, 19 Dec. 2018, hope1032.com.au/stories/open-house/2018/war-what-is-it-good-for-how-should-christians-deal-with-war/.
- Forman, Gayle. If I Stay. Penguin Random House LLC, 2019.
- Pearson, Mary. The Kiss of Deception: the Remnant Chronicles; Book 1. Square Fish, Henry Holt, and Company, 2015.
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