All Quiet On the Western Front Assignment- Close Reading Essay

All Quiet On the Western Front Assignment- Close Reading - Essay Example The story concludes with Paul’s death at the hands of a French sniper on a day near the end of the war. This book is not written by a military general, a politician, a hired ghost writer, a professional historian, but a common solider that has deep respect for human values. He writes without any hidden agenda. Though Paul and his friends joined the army charged with patriotism and with high expectations, soon the brutalities and other realities of war disenchanted them. The captioned pages elaborate the realities of war. In this short passage, the author has provided everything as to how a good books needs to be written. The original company of 150 men of which he has described is a mini-war front, and the description of the sufferings of the individual soldiers is moving. Paul writes about the life of a soldier and how he learns to disengage oneself from human emotions like fear, love and sympathy and turn almost cynical. Not the actual war, but the aftermath of the war worri es Paul. In the above scene, the members of the Second Company, a unit of German army men fighting during World War I, are resting to enjoy a short reprieve from active duty in the warfront. They have suffered heavy casualties, only eighty have returned from the original strength of 150. Paul gives an admirable description about the soldiers and the literary talents of the author are showing. Tjadenis a glutton, but his body is wiry, Haie Westhus, with a heavy body, Detgering who always things about his wife at home, Katczinsky, the cunning old man and the experienced one, and the unwilling cook, who goes by the rule-book of the army to issue rations. The genius of the author is showing throughout their conversation. The passages above highlight the main themes of the novel: How an ordinary soldier is impacted by the horrors of war. The usual features with the war novels are romance, valour, and heroism in the battlefield. But Paul describes about the