Torn to Pieces

Author's Note: This was my response to Chapter 1 of the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. I wrote about the motif of pieces, because it seems that as we grow up, our life has to be torn to pieces at one point or another.

Our life’s purpose as humans is to navigate a path through life by listening and learning, looking and locating. To do so without a map would be foolish, therefore a passel of us often find ourselves sketching a map with the instructions of our elders, constantly drawing from their words our own map of life. This map – one so carefully and eloquently crafted – does not truly belong to us; this map – one full of false turns and dead ends – is only a collection of lessons and stories of others; this map will inevitably be torn to pieces. Erich Maria Remarque uses the motif of breaking into pieces in the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, to prove that our previous view of the world must break to pieces before encountering our own meaning of life.

Paul Baumer, the poetic narrator of the story, trudges wearily through the ominous war, watching as others’ lives are torn to pieces while struggling to piece his own back together. Before heading off to war, Paul attended school and was strongly influenced by his teacher, Kantorek. As a figure of authority, Kantorek filled the minds of his students to the brim with ideas of nationalism and obligations to the country. Paul Baumer heeded the wise words of his teacher, and joined the army, but looks back upon the situation with regret. As he lives through weary war, vicious violence and devastating death, he remembers the Kantorek’s false advice and thinks, “The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces” (13). As his map of life is torn to pieces, Paul comprehends the brutality of life and realizes he must piece together a map all his own. The words of advice from Kantorek that he so carefully drew up a map from were not his own words, and the map was bound to break. Fighting in the grueling war not only leaves Paul’s world in pieces, but also gives him the maturity to piece his life back together. Before the war, Paul was a child because he believed that there was an answer to every problem and his life would always be whole, but now he has become an adult because his life falls to pieces and he realizes that the answers of life will not always leave his soul whole.