All Quiet on the Western Front is a story written by Erich Maria Remarque about a German soldier in the first world war named Paul Baumer. The story is about the conditions of the war as a soldier. In my opinion it is quiet a depressing book as it feels like the characters slowly lose themselves in the war. In the beginning, the characters are all described with their individual traits that together is supposed to represent their generation. They leave home and school as volunteers to be soldier and the war becomes their life. They only know of war and going home just brings discomfort and confusion as to how they could ever go back to a life in which they had nothing. Paul relates the war to just a battle for survival, kill or be killed. They don't fight out of hatred of the enemy, they fight because they want to make it to the next day. Paul's first friend dies in the first couple chapters of the book. The rest of Paul's friends all die as well throughout the entire book, with Paul's death stated in a short epilogue. He is described to have been shot on the quietest day where it was described as "All quiet on the western front," and he was said to have a calm and peaceful look on his face almost as if he was glad the end had come.
This book became so popular because it related to soldiers from all sides of the war. It also appealed to people who wanted to understand the conditions of the war. Remarque wrote it as a means of therapy to get over some of the terrible feelings of his own war experience.
The part I did was about women and politics in Germany. What I found most interesting was that under the rule of Hitler, a woman's roles was to just have children to grow Germany's population to support Hitler's plan. It was their duty to ensure the future of the German race and women were even given medals for having large families. The image above shows one of the rewards.
