FratFiles

• Save Paper

The Problem of Language in "All Quiet on the Western Front"

For it is no easy undertaking, I say,
to describe the bottom of the Universe;
nor is it for tongues that only babble child's play.

(The Inferno, XXXII, 7-9.)

Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel
set in World War I, centers around the changes wrought by the war on one
young German soldier. During his time in the war, Remarque's 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 societal
icons--parents, elders, school, religion--that had been the foundation of
his pre-enlistment days. This rejection comes about as a result of
Baumer's realization that the pre-enlistment society simply does not
understand the reality of the Great......

View the rest of this paper...

Approximate Word Count: 4568
Approximate Pages: 19 (250 words per double-spaced page)

Similar Essays

1. German Literature
   

   German Literature. The Problem of Language in "All Quiet on the Western
   Front" For it is no easy undertaking, I say, to describe ...

2. German Literature
   

   German Literature. To think of something romantically is to think of it naively,
   in a positive light, away from the view of the majority. ...

3. Romanticism In Germany
   

   ... society. If German literature had ended at this point it would already
   have contributed a new note to the Romantic movement. But ...

4. German World Of Disappointment
   

   ... The theme of disappointment is not limited to Boll's stories. Disappointment
   is a common issue in much of German literature. In ...

5. The Sorrows Of Young Werther
   

   ... According to the 19th-century English critic Matthew Arnold, Goethe must be considered
   not only “the manifest centre of German literature” but also one of ...