Great War

One way of investigating history is through the source of fiction. This non-traditional avenue can serve to increase the understanding of a historical event by showing the effects it had on the level of an individual rather than on a large scale glorification that sometimes takes place with other sources. Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front describes with astute insight, the adverse psychological effects of World War I bestowed upon the young men embroiled in its traumatic battles. The details in this novel dwell on the atrocities of the war rather than the particulars like battle names, and deeply delve into the issues surrounding the soldier's interaction with civilians, memories of their life before the war and coping mechanisms developed to live with an unlivable situation. These are the things that eventually lead to robbing them of their humanity.

Through the depiction of soldiers fighting on the front, the author sets the stage for presenting the destructive effects imparted upon them psychologically. With the onset of World War I, there came to be a completely new notion of military conflict with catastrophic levels of annihilation never known before. These men were in constant physical danger due to new technological advances such as poison gas and machine guns that made death and destruction a cinch. Remarque carefully constructs a picture of what it was like to live with the constant anxiety of knowing that you could be here one moment and gone the next. "One cannot explain it. A man is walking along without thought or heed;--suddenly he throws himself down on the ground and a storm of fragments flies harmlessly over him..But had he not abandoned himself to the impulse he would now be a heap of mangled flesh."1 Heading to war with the intention of upholding the ideals of the moment of glory and patriotism became secondary to the tactics of basic survival and served to be one of many monumental disappointments experienced by these men. Living through this kind of constant terror was just the beginning of the breakdown of their humanity and set them firmly on the road to becoming psychologically damaged.

The soldiers living conditions during World War I were disheartening and must certainly be counted as a large contributor to psychological damage. They were forced to spend much of their time in the trenches competing for food with rats, reclining with corpses that were left to rot and struggling with the infestation of lice. The basic act of attaining food, clothing and medical care which were not easily attainable became first and foremost ahead of anything else. This is one illustration of the break down that occurred between the patriotism and honor that these men were charged with upholding and the reality of the horrific conditions at the front. They were required to dig into the most animalistic aspects of their being to find a way to survive. Thus, there was the necessity for them to suppress their emotions and accept the conditions or just curl up and die. They had few other choices. Living in a constant state of disconnection from emotions devoured what was left of their humanity.

Another psychological consequence suffered by these young soldiers pertained to their purpose in life. By being whisked off to war before they were able to develop one, they were greatly affected in all areas of life. Since they were so young when they went to war they couldn't have known who they were and now can only identify themselves as soldiers.

Paul and the others know nothing of having a civilian life as illustrated in this passage. "Besides this there was little else--some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and our school. Beyond this our life did not extend. And of this nothing