“What might the author be implying about the impact of war on human behavior?”

In many wars such as WWI and WWII a tactic called “total war” was used. a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded. This meant that companies that used to make cars and machinery, focused on making weapons, tanks, and vehicles for the war. In the story All Quiet On the Western Front, we can see the whole effect of what this can do to someone during this time. All efforts are put into the war such as materials, food, and even manpower. Women had to take over jobs causing them to get diseases from working with dangerous materials and men with little to no experience had to be sent off to war to fight. In the book, we get to see the side of the Germans. Paul the protagonist said this quote and it speaks and highlights the struggle of every soldier, “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.” During the war children and teenagers were sent to war with little to no instincts. Their happy lives are destroyed, and all they have to worry about is surviving, much like a wild animal. The author implies that once you have experienced the hardships of war your mind becomes null to all other emotions and all you can think about is surviving. At the end of the story, Paul is the last soldier alive in his class. His mentor, his friends, and his comrades all died. Paul has lost everything and now that he returned to his normal life, he doesn’t know what to do. The war drained all of his thoughts and energy, and now he doesn’t have a routine to follow.