All quiet on the western front

All quiet on the western front, by erich maria remarque, shows some very powerful views toward the Great War. The main character , Paul Baumer, goes through an incredible metamorphsis from an innocent dreamer to a hardened and somewhat cynical veteran.

Paul's views started out as being slightly against the war, but not very strongly against it. He didn't seem to mind staying at base camp and hanging out iwth his friends very much. However, after some time fighting the war, he comes to realize that most pre-war society doesn't understand the Great War for what it was. They don't understand the suffering and misery that went witgh wars, and especially trench warfare like that in the Great War. paul disassociates himself from his parents, old school firends, and even religions because they remind him of his pre-enlistmentdays, when he was one of the innocents who iddn't realize what the Great War was.

World War I, Camp Meade, MD, 1917-1918

An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the opposin...

Men at the recruiting office at the Town Hall, Mel...

His only friends seem to be his military comrades for they are the only ones who uynderstan what he is going through or has gone through by the end of service.

Paul resents the effort that everybody seemed to be going through in order for him to enlist. Teachers and parents especially wanted him to enlist. Paul even says, "at one time even on's parets were ready with the word 'coward'" When Paul finally gets home, he seems overjoyed to be back, but soon he feels the discomfort of being worlds apart from his mother and father. When he first gets back, he can only cry, but when he tries to speak with his mother, he can't bring up the right words. The separation he felt was a result of his feeling about how horrible the war was and how he didn't want his mother...