Other representations - All Quiet on the Western Front 2

The main character is Paul Baumer, a young German enlisted soldier, who watches his comrades die in battle one by one. Some of the soldiers were his classmates who had been pressured by their schoolteacher, Kantorek, to volunteer for active service. There are three 'places' in the story: the battle front; places near the battle front such as the army camp or field hospitals or away from the front in the soldiers' home towns or training camp.

The themes that are presented in the narrative are:

  • the loss of innocence;
  • the bitterness that the soldiers felt at being forced to go to war;
  • the callousness and brutality of war;
  • the value of comradeship and humanity towards others;
  • the shared sense of terror and fear amongst the soldiers;
  • the beauty of nature amid the chaos (represented by the red poppies and white butterflies in the meadow). Remarque was a butterfly collector;
  • the boots (which had belonged to Franz Kemmerich, a young soldier) that are transferred from soldier to soldier upon death.
Introduction
Sassoon, Owen and Graves

The history of Craiglockhart
The War's effect on ordinary people
Music, prose and trench art
Pat Barker's trilogy
Acknowledgements, credit and contact
links to related sites
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Role of the media 2