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

Importance of Life Revealed in Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the westerly Front Erich Maria Remarques sheer war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with the many ways in which World War I affected peoples lives, both the lives of soldiers on the front end lines and the lives of people on the homefront. One of the close profound effects the war had was the way it made the soldiers see human life. Constant killing and death became a part of a soldiers daily life, and soldiers fighting on all sides of the war became accustomed to it. The atrocities and frequent deaths that the soldiers dealt with desensitized them to the reality of the vast quantities of people dying daily. The title genius of the novel, capital of Minnesota 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 render in the novel desensitizes 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 childhood friends, Kemmerich, dies early in the war. Bumer expresses his emotional despair after Kemmerichs death, stating, I become faint, all at once I cannot do any more. I wont revile any more, it is senseless, I could drop down and never maturate 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 point and seems commonplace to him. Life, which he once took for granted, is now cherished beyond belief, and holding on to it becomes his greatest preoccupation. These effect s are not limited only to Paul Bumer, but extend to all the millions of people that are involved, 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 support 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.