All Quiet on the Western Front Allusions
A popular novel published in the year 1929, All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque speaks of a stressful and highly critical life of German soldiers who were led to believe that fighting for war is an honorable way to experience and show patriotism.
Disillusioned and feeling terrorized by the unpredictable circumstances during the war, Paul Bäumer and his group of other soldier friends fight their way to serve the country while battling inner demons of fear, sadness, and terror.
All Quiet on the Western Front speaks of a soldier’s pain and anguish while feeling withdrawn and isolated from everyone in the society even to his own home. The novel is full of allusions and this helps create a story that has a meaningful and deep connection to a man’s primal and emotional instinct at the face of death.
All Quiet on the Battle Front Allusions
“After a few weeks, it was perplexing even to us that merely a simple postman can show more influence on us compared to our relatives, mentors, and the whole long line of culture from Plato to Goethe.”
– Plato and Wolfgang von Goethe are intellectuals who have deep influences in European historical culture. Hence, the phrase speaks of the postman as a person of higher influence compared to the soldier’s families and famous philosophers.
“No Man’s Land”
– No Man’s Land is defined as a territory where two opposing forces fight against each other. This is where Paul kills an enemy, and where another soldier by the name of Joseph Behm, was eventually wounded.
“Yes, that’s the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks!”
– Kantorekswas the teacher who filled Paul’s head and that of the other soldier’s images of heroism, which prompted them to enlist in the army. The experience proved to be a