I know what you’re thinking… “Does she really expect us to read All Quiet on the Western Front? Isn’t that boring? Who even likes it?”

1) Yes.

2) No.

3) Me.

Many people might be confused as to why All Quiet on the Western Front is my favorite book (yes, it really is my favorite book). However, I understand feeling hesitant over whether to read it. My grandfather gave it to me in ninth grade, and I didn’t end up reading it until my senior year.

• Some background information: From fifth to ninth grade, I constantly read books on World War Two, and I’ve read more WW2 books than I can count. I’ve also always read historical books, and after years of reading books like All Quiet on the Western Front, I like to think I’m somewhat qualified to judge and recommend them. One important note about how I view war books is that I hate, and I mean really really hate, books that glorify war. To me, that’s what makes All Quiet on the Western Front such a good book. It doesn’t romanticize WWI, and it has a strong anti-war message.

The story is about a group of German soldiers during World War I told by Paul Bäumer. The group of soldiers enlisted together after their teacher encouraged them to fight for their country, but through the years, the men’s disillusionment over what war truly is grows stronger. While the Germans were seen as the bad guys from the American perspective, the novel showcases what the everyday German soldier went through. Much of the experiences and themes the novel focuses on are universal for any soldier on either side of the war. While it’s not a memoir of Remarque’s own experience during the war, he draws on what he experienced as a soldier to shape the novel.

Reasons to read All Quiet on the Western Front…

• The anti-war theme
  1. All Quiet on the Western Front condemns war. After WWI, the world was sick of war. The most popular books were ones like All Quiet on the Western Front. They showcased the horrors of war without spouting an overly patriotic, “war is glory!!” viewpoint. WWI memoirs published at the time did far worse if they had a pro-war message, and this differed from the public’s perception of war pre-WWI. The novel focuses on the physical and mental toll war inflicts on soldiers. It’s often hard to read, but the way it shows the devastation that war has on young, impressionable soldiers is remarkable.
• The writing
  1. All Quiet on the Western Front has some of the best quotes from any novel I’ve read. It leaves you with a sick feeling in your chest, and the writing is hauntingly beautiful (as cheesy as that sounds). I’m going to list just a few of my favorite quotes that sum up the message and writing style of the novel.
     1. “I think I would do some unimaginable thing—something, you know, that it’s worth having lain here in the muck for. But I can’t even imagine anything” (Remarque 87).
     2. “We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war” (Remarque 87-88).
     3. “We are forlon like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost” (Remarque 123).
     4. “We see time pass in the colourless faces of the dying…” (Remarque 133)
     5. “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow” (Remarque 263).

• A better understanding of the 1920s
  1. Everyone loves the Roaring Twenties. However, what most people don’t realize is how much influence WWI had on the glamour and parties of the ’20s. The Lost Generation is the group of young Americans who came of age during WWI, and after their experiences, they became disillusioned with an America that no longer existed to them. They partied because they were traumatized and wanted an escape. Their carefree attitude came from witnessing death and destruction firsthand. All Quiet on the Western Front allows you to truly understand why the Roaring Twenties happened, even with it being about the Germans.
• The dedication speaks for itself.
  1. “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” (Remarque)

All Quiet on the Western Front truly is the greatest war novel of all time, and even if you’re slightly more interested in it, I’m happy.

Works Cited