Summary:
The sociological concept of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs can explain the range of emotions and actions by Paul in the World War I novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Eric Remarque.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs illustrates the rank of environmental conditions humans value. The mind, which responds naturally to the level of suitability of environment conditions, becomes confused when that level is inconsistent. By the nature of the war, Paul loses the conscious connection with his physical actions which is only exhibited at when conditions warrant the higher-level needs of Maslow's Hierarchy.
It is true that Paul still experiences moments when he feels a connection to his higher-level needs, especially the inclination to love, seen in the scene with the Frenchman: "I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade... you could be my brother"(223). However, this feeling does not last: Paul realizes that "[i]t was only because I had to lie there with him[the Frenchman] so long... After all, war is war"(229).
The detachment of conscience results from the necessary instinct Paul needs for the battlefront. Paul describes the front as a "mysterious whirlpool"(55):
I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly, inescapably in itself. From the earth, from the air, sustaining forces pour into us... In the spasm of terror, under the hailing of annihilation, in the bellowing death of the explosions, O Earth, thou grantest us the great resisting surge of new-won life. Our being, almost utterly carried away by the fury of the storm, streams back through our hands from thee"(55-56).
This description shows the soldiers' dependence on the Earth as an instinct. Paul goes further to explain the reliance on the instinct:
It[the instinct] is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness... It is this other, this second sight in us, that has thrown us to the ground and saved us, without our knowing how(56).
Later, Paul is able to describe the level of conscience even more clearly:
"[I]t has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horror, which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought... In the outward form of our life we are hardly distinguishable from Bushmen; but...[t]he Bushmen are... naturally so, but we are primitive in an artificial sense"(274).
The disjunction is further exemplified in Paul's feelings toward his fellow soldiers. He feels a relief from being with them: "I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence... we all share the same fear and the same life"(212). Even this friendship is caused by the "weapon of instinct"(274) which "has awakened in [them] the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude"(274). The simplicity and intuitiveness of these relationships reveal the degeneration of Paul's life.
His awareness of this change fluctuates with his experiences.
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