Essay | All Quiet On the Western Front

The Ambiguity of War

"We run, we throw, we shoot, we kill, we lie about, we are feeble and spent . . . " -Paul Baumer

War is brutal, and that is what the book All Quiet on the Western Front is based upon. This book alone, although it dramatizes war in graphic detail cannot destroy all hope for lessons to be learned. In fact, war is an inevitable reality in the lives of all people around the world, especially today. So what can All Quiet on the Western Front teach us and how can it guide us in our recent struggles that started on September 11, 2001? One would not sit and read this book for comfort, rather one would adopt a sense of what war brings: hell. Along with this hell, however, brings the opportunity to bond with our neighbors. It teaches us to respect and value life a little more, and...
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