All Quiet on the Western Front is about how a group of young men volunteer for the war after hearing speeches about how great it is. They go to training for a few weeks and live life on the front they soon realize it is not all it was supposed to be. They go through things such as losing lives to losing legs. Life on the western front was not all they thought it would be. .
The purpose of author Erich Maria Remarque writing "All Quiet on the Western Front" was so that people could know all of the hard ships that the men in the military had to do through in the war. It also shows the permanent damage done to those who fight in wars. The author gets the point across but using a certain tone that makes you feel the desperation they have. He uses irony and symbolism throughout the whole book. (pg 271-291) The final chapters of the book are full of irony because the soldiers are on their final stand and are about to fall. .
Themes are what make a book, and in this book there are three major themes. One of the major themes is the horror of war. The horror of war is all throughout the book. Unlike most war books this one tells the real story of war and how brutal it actually is. It replaces the idea of the being heroic and everything being great in the war front and teaches people the real idea of war. The second theme is the effect of war on the soldiers. The ware had a major effect on the soldiers they were in constant danger and were seeing people die every day. The after math of the war is just as bad as during the war because they still think about it every waking moment of their lives. The war sticks to them like a scary movie. The third theme is Nationalism. Nationalism is what gets Paul and the others to join the army. It tricks them into thinking the war is great and everything the war really is not. The several themes in this book are relevant to what the other was trying to show all of his readers.