All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Marie Remarque was, like Wilfred Owen, a soldier in WWI. Yet unlike Owen, Remarque fought for the Germans.

Regardless of the politics of the situation, Remarque’s portrayal of WWI is powerfully moving, demanding in its descriptive force that we really consider the profound condition in which these soldiers in the trenches found themselves.

The excerpt from the novel All Quiet on the Western Front depicts the intrinsically chaotic and thus unpredictable nature of trench warfare—at any time you may encounter the enemy right in front of you. As a soldier, you never knew who might appear mere inches beyond your person, and you had to act quickly, ever so quickly, or else you were dead. The expression—“kill or be killed”— applies very well.