Document Type
Freshman Seminar Essay
Publication Date
1983
Excerpt
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque presents a view of youth which is quite different from society's traditional ideas. The term "youth" conjures up images of vigorous, smiling adolescents. In the public eye, even the young men who go to war are happy and energetic-proud to fight and die for their country. Remarque, however, paints a much bleaker picture. The term "youth" in All Quiet can be interpreted only in the strictest sense of a person's age. War sweeps away the innocence and exuberance associated with youth. Fighting kills the spirit of youth and forces adolescents to behave like beaten old men. The energy is drained from their bodies and replaced by bitterness and stark realism. Young men question ideals basic to their societies and no longer blindly accept traditional reasons for fighting a war. As Paul Bäumer, the young narrator of All Quiet, explains, the freshness and naiveté of youth cannot be applied to soldiers. Regardless of the soldiers' ages, war scratches out of their lives all youthfulness.
Recommended Citation
Jass, Kristin, "War: The End of Youth (1983)" (1983). The Valpo Core Reader. 565.
http://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/565