The Metamorphosis of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

The Metamorphosis of Paul Baumer in All tranquillize on the western sandwich Front Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel set in World War I, centers around the changes wrought by the war on one one-year-old German soldier. During his time in the war, Remarques protagonist, Paul Baumer, changes from a rather innocent Romantic to a hardened and somewhat caustic veteran. More importantly, during the course of this metamorphosis, Baumer disaffiliates himself from those social icons-parents, elders, school, religion-that had been the foundation of his pre-enlistment days. This rejection comes ab off as a result of Baumers realization that the pre-enlistment society simply does not understand the reality of the Great War. His new society, then, becomes the Company, his fellow chuck soldiers, because that is a group which does understand the truth as Baumer has experienced it. Remarque demonstrates Baumers disaffiliation from the traditional by emphasizing th e language of Baumers pre- and post-enlistment societies. Baumer either can not, or chooses not to, spend truthfully with those representatives of his pre-enlistment and innocent days. Further, he is repulsed by the banal and meaningless language that is used by members of that society. As he becomes alienated from his former, traditional, society, Baumer simultaneously is able to pass on effectively only with his military comrades. Since the novel is told from the first person point of view, the reader can see how the words Baumer speaks are at variance with his legitimate feelings. In his preface to the novel, Remarque maintains that a generation of men ... were destroyed by the war (Remarque, All Quiet Preface). Indeed, in All Quiet on the Western Front, the meaning of language itself is, to a great extent, destroyed. Early in the novel, Baumer notes how his elders had been facile with words prior to his enlistment. Specifically, teachers and parents had used words, passiona tely at times, to persuade him and other juvenile men to enlist in the war effort. After relating the tale of a teacher who exhorted his students to enlist, Baumer states that teachers always carry their feelings put in in their waistcoat pockets, and trot them out by the hour (Remarque, All Quiet I. 15). Baumer admits that he, and others, were fooled by this rhetorical trickery. Parents,too, were not averse to using words to shame their sons into enlisting. At that time even ones parents were ready with the word coward (Remarque, All Quiet I.