It isn't quiet at all...

In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the protagonist is enlisted in the German army during The Great War. Paul, a young soldier, is placed in the front lines of the war and hopes to survive The Great War; however, he knows that his experience in the war has traumatized him. Paul and his friends have already witnessed one of their comrades die. They show a lack of emotion and are more worried about his comrade's boots than the death.  This novel demonstrates both man versus environment and man versus self. In the front lines of the war, Paul is constantly avoiding artillery shells and the roar from the guns create distress in Paul and his allies. Paul explains the front as the area where men become "human animals". This represents that The Great War has an enormous impact on the soldiers and forces them to lose their minds to become animals that react instinctively. Paul wants to maintain his conscience and survive the war.


The main conflict has not been resolved in my stage of the book. However, seeing that it is a war novel and written in third-person, I'm assuming the resolution will be a tragic one. Why would the end be a tragic one? First of all, the Germans lost the war and an entire generation was killed. In addition, the protagonist already realizes that his experience in the war has destroyed his mentality. The front lines were filled with the stench of corpses and the trenches were flooded with mud and diseases. This novel was written to illustrate the horror that an entire generation suffered in the beginning and end of The Great War.