Importance of Life Revealed in Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the

Importance of Life Revealed in Erich Maria Remarques either Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarques classic fight novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with the many ways in which World War I affected mints lives, both the lives of soldiers on the strawman lines and the lives of people on the homefront. One of the most profound effects the fight had was the way it made the soldiers see human brio. Constant cleaning and remainder became a part of a soldiers perfunctory life, and soldiers fighting on completely sides of the war became accustomed to it. The atrocities and frequent deaths that the soldiers dealt with desensitized them to the honesty of the vast quantities of people end daily. The title character of the novel, Paul Bumer, and his friends experience the devaluation of human life firsthand, and from these experiences they become stronger and learn to live as if every day were their last. The killing and death of WW I depicted in the novel dese nsitizes Bumer to the reality that death is now a regular and driving force in his life, and that each human life is no longer sacred and precious. Bumer feels great emotion and sadness when one of his childishness friends, Kemmerich, dies early in the war. Bumer expresses his emotional despair after Kemmerichs death, stating, I become faint, either at once I cannot do any more. I wont impose on _or_ oppress any more, it is senseless, I could drop down and never rise up again (Remarque 32). Because this is one of the first deaths that Bumer witnesses personally and because Bumer and Kemmerich were childhood friends, the emotional impact is even greater. However, not all the deaths of his comrades effect him in such a powerful manner. The fighting gets to a point at which Bumer... ... him. Death, which he once agonized over, is now a daily occurrence and seems commonplace to him. Life, which he once took for granted, is now cherished beyond belief, and holding on to it becomes hi s greatest preoccupation. These effects are not expressage however to Paul Bumer, but extend to all the millions of people that are abstruse, directly or indirectly, in the war. WW I has far-reaching impact. It not only touches those in combat on the front lines, but also those who stand the soldiers and help to make munitions and supplies on the homefront. Bumer, and the millions of other people involved in WW I, learn the difficult lesson that the most trying experiences in life, or in this case death, are what make us the strongest and what drive us to survive. Works Cited Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York Balantine Books, 1928.