All Quiet on the Western Front Book Evaluation

By

Mathew Enoch Mount

            All Quiet on the Western Front is the type of trash that apparently came from an editors can of refuge only to be accidentally emptied onto a printing press from some mysterious force.  The story falsely demeans the German people by depicting a non-Christian and ungodly Germany with an army that is devoted entirely to hedonism.  Overall, the story, from my perception and that of other college employees, is developed for the pure propagation of propaganda for war protest and anti German campaigns.

            The character that I find to reveal the authors point of the story the most is the character of Himmelstoss whom was a commander of the story teller, was raped by the story teller, latter was found by the story teller to be cowering in battle, was dominated by the story teller, and became submissive to the story teller.  Himmelstoss is a character from the authors mind that shows what the author thinks about military authority, and one could conclude that by the story of Himmelstoss the author of the work has a hatred for people of military command.  Overall, interest in Himmelstoss for this essay is steeped in interest of the accuracy of the work written.

            Just by the story of Himmelstoss one could see that Remargue falsely depicts the fighters of a German World War I as worse than animals.  The height of Remargues anti war and anti German cause is seen when Himmelstoss, a commander, is raped by his German subordinates with the phrase, Revenge in black-pudding. (Page 49)  Obviously, all quiet on the Western Front has no value to a history class other than to demonstrate literature that has a setting of World War I, elevate one race above another, and undermine military authority by demonstrating how evil a war and race of people could be in an authors imagination.

Bibliography:

Remarque, Erich

            All Quiet on the Western Front

New York: Ballantine Books, 1958.