Critical Analysis

All of Erich Remarque's books are somewhat autobiographical in nature and the novels I analyzed are no exception. His experience of being drafted and his time spent fighting in World War 1 heavily influenced all his writing. Those influences can be clearly seen in both All Quiet on the Western Front and A Time to Love and a Time to Love. Remarque had strong opinions on corruption caused by caused by power, the education system, the destructive nature of war which are all big themes in both novels. For example, both protagonists, Paul Baumer and Ernst Graeber, give vivid descriptions of the gruesome scenes at the front lines and often give long-winded rants about how war destroys youth and innocence. This can be clearly seen when Paul says" The first bombardment showed us our mistake and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke into pieces." The protagonist in A Time To Live and a Time to Die, also examines loss of youth and the destructive nature of war. After he returns home on his first leave in two years, he finds that his house has been bombed and no one knows the whereabouts of his parents. As All Quiet on the Western Front progresses, Paul shuts down emotionally further and further. His emotional and mental deterioration is illustrated by sentence structure. When Paul is a little more hopeful, he has flowing and almost poetic sentences, but as he denigrates they get very short and matter of fact. This is a technique that Remarque uses in both novels but more so with Paul. The driving message in all of Remarque's novels is that there is nothing glorious about war. It is only destructive and dehumanizing.

National Overview

Both of the novels I read take place in Germany during World War 2. In this time period, England and Germany were at odds on opposite sides of the worst war the world had ever seen. There was a big push for young men to join the army and both nationalism and militarism were running high. The propaganda for the war often played on the sympathy and pride of men in order to guilt them into enlisting. Western Europe was clearly divided for the first time in a long while and everyone had forgotten how horrible war truly was. Instead there minds were filled with romantic notions of glory and national pride. As the war progressed, Germany gained a lot of blame from the rest of Europe (mainly England and France) for the destruction. France received the most damage from the war, since that's where most of the fighting took place, and, there fore was not on good grounds with Germany. Before the war began, Germany had a pretty good economic standing, but as they got deeper in, there supplies and food suffered due to their declining status. With World War 1 also came the birth of trench warfare. An especially brutal form of war in which a series of trenches is dug and both sides essentially take turns advancing and retreating. This new  type of warfare exposed many young men to horrific images and experiences that had not been a part of previous wars. It created a whole new level of brutality and forced soldiers to almost completely dehumanize in order to survive.

Summary: A Time to Love and a Time to Die

Ernst Graeber and his fellow soldiers are order to kill Russian civilians in World War 1 and, rather than do so, his friend commits suicide. Ernst receives  three weeks leave after a long two year stretch at the Russian front lines. Leaves are often canceled, however, so he decides not to write his parents and get their hopes up just in case. When he returns home he finds that his house has been bombed and no knows the whereabouts of his parents. Dismayed and confused, Ernst reaches out to a childhood friend, Elizabeth, who has also experienced great loss from the war as her father is being held prisoner by the Gestapo. Despite both of their grim circumstances, the quickly fall in love. An old friend of Ernst is now a very rich Nazi and he invites them to come stay with them and help with their wedding. On the day of there wedding there is an air raid and their friend Binding dies. The next day Ernst receives a letter from his parents and he and Elizabeth spend the rest of his leave safe in an inn. When he returns to the front he and his soldiers are, yet again, ordered to kill Russian civilians and Ernst kills his friend that tries and frees the civilians.

Summary: All Quiet on the Western Front

At the age of 18, Paul Baumer enlists in the German army to fight in World War 1 at the encouragement of his teacher, family, and society as a whole. The novel begins with Paul and his friends relaxing together after a difficult stretch on the front line. He and his other classmates are just begining to question the people that encouraged them to join the war. Paul goes to see his fried who was injured in battle only to watch him die. Paul the gets sent to a special training camp right next to a prison camp for Russian soldiers where he starts to see just how human his enemy really is. When Paul is sent back to the front line where he reflexively kills a french soldier. He with them man as he slowly dies and promises to write to the man's family. He is wounded in battle and sent to a Catholic hospital to recover before being sent right back to the front.When he returns to battle, it looks very grim for Germany and he spends most of his time think about the way that war destroys youth and hope and the corrupting nature of power especially on those who've never had any.

Biograghy

Erich Maria Remarque was born in Germany in 1898 to a very modest household. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the military to fight in World War 1(Taylor). His time spent in the army would serve as inspiration for his later novels and cause him to feel restless and jump from job to job. After the war, he was a teacher for about a year, but felt he was unappreciated and that he wasn't teaching anything truly meaningful. His problems with the education system and it's influence had a strong effect on his writing later. He had several other jobs such as a race car driver and a journalist before pursuing writing full time. His most notable novel was All Quiet on the Western Front. It was largely autobiographical and set the precedent for his future novels. When World War 2 started, he had to flee Germany with his first wife, Ilse Jutta Zambona, never to return because his books were banned by Hitler in 1933. He briefly visited the United States where he met his second wife, an American movie star named Paulette Goodard and divorced his first. He spent the rest of his life in Switzerland until his death in 1970 (Taylor). After All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque struggled to try to match it's success and never quite manged it. His first novel haunted him the rest of his life and so after his permanent move to Switzerland he seldom released new works with long intervals in between them.


Taylor, Marvin J. "The Life and Writings of Erich Maria Remarque." New York University. New York University Library, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.