All Quiet on the Western Front

       By: Eric Padmanesan    5/5 It was amazing   Author: Erich Maria Remarque

The story is about a student named Paul Baumer, a 19 year old kid who became a soldier in germany to fight with French in WW1 Paul and several of his friends from school joined the army voluntarily after listening to the stirring patriotic speeches of their teacher, Kantorek. But after experiencing ten weeks of brutal training at the hands of the petty, cruel Corporal Himmelstoss and the unimaginable brutality of life on the front, Paul and his friends have realized that the ideals of nationalism and patriotism for which they enlisted are simply empty clichés. They no longer believe that war is glorious or honorable, and they live in constant physical terror.

After a long fight Paul and his friends are killed in combat one by one. Detering, one of Paul's close friends, attempts to desert but is caught and court-martialed and killed. By the fall of 1918, Paul was the only one of his circle of friends who was still alive. Soldiers everywhere whisper that the Germans will soon surrender and that peace will come. Paul is poisoned in a gas attack and given a short leave. He reflects that, when the war ends, he will be ruined for peacetime; all he knows is the war. In October 1918, on a day with very little fighting, Paul was killed. The army report for that day reads simply: “All quiet on the Western Front.” Paul’s corpse wears a calm expression, as though relieved that the end has come at last.