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A Loss of Innocence Should Never be Taken Lightly
War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.
When a soldier begins his first training camp or when he kills his first man, his boots are there warming his feet. Soldiers might not realize it but their boots are with them through their change of heart. In All Quiet boots resemble ageing, façade, and change in heart. In the beginning of the book Paul and Muller are bedside with their dieing friend Kemmerich. Muller asks hesitantly about the boots,” can you leave them with us… out here one can make some use of them”(Remarque 16). Kemmerich’s leg has been amputated and he has no idea of it. This shows how Muller is somewhat selfish to ask a question like this especially when all Kemmerich needs is support. If Muller had never become a soldier he would have never asked such a horrific question, yet in war you try to make decisions based on what is right for you not a person in need of friendship. Muller is shot point blank in the stomach and on his last breaths gives Paul his boots. ”Before he died he…bequeathed me his boots - the same he had inherited from Kemmerich… and Tjaden after me” (279). Sadly Muller feels that it is more important to give Paul his boots than say a few words to help Paul through his death because boots will help Paul now, even thought Muller’s companionship would be a greater prize. The most troubling concept is that Paul knows he will die, which brings a man to wonder,” if you know you will be defeated why not give up now?“ Boots can give a man blisters, it can make his feet bleed. Yet when these boots are prized more than a mans friendship and more importantly a mans life, these boots are no longer just footwear. Instead these boots change, corrupt, and make the soldiers something which they aren’t.
When you speak of butterflies you may think of happiness, beauty, or maybe nature. Yet in All Quiet butterflies are shown in deathly scenes where there is no happiness or scenes which there is no beauty. For this fact butterflies are very symbolic to the story. In the beginning of the book there is a scene where Paul and his brigade are all in a meadow watching in a daze as,” the white butterflies flutter around and float on soft warm wind of the late summer” (9). This is all happening while the men are going to the bathroom and smoking. The butterflies represent everything that’s good and the men everything that’s bad, Remarque uses this image to show how the men are not innocent at all. This allows the reader to see how the boys have progressed from young men to adults because of the war for they would have never smoked as much as they do and felt crazed at the fact of doing their business in front of a bunch of men on a beautiful hill top. During a bloody morning in the trenches Paul watches in awe as,” two butterflies play in front of our trench… what can they be looking for here?”(127). The butterflies are showing Paul of the times when he was a kid as he chased butterflies and played with others and as he holds these memories near and dear he is astonished to see them in a place of pain and sorrow. It also shows how innocence can be found in places that are dreary or full of death. This relates to Paul for the fact that there is still a little bit of childhood, or innocence, clinging to him even though he can‘t help but let it go. When Paul returns home and walks in the door he notices,” that on the wall hangs the glass case with the colored butterflies that once I collected,”(p158). For Paul it is now shown how butterflies relates to his life and how when he was a kid there are memories of him catching them and having a lot of fun dong it. This is why usually when a butterfly is in his presence of Paul, he always takes advantage of it and watches the creature flutter around. It also is showing how when ever he see’s a butterfly it reminds him of home, which is the reason why later he says,” I should have never come back”(185). Happy memories, for Paul are hurtful because it will take his thoughts off killing which could make him soft and vulnerable. Butterflies is Paul’s childhood and the war is where he is presently at. When the two are mixed together it shows how he changed so dramatically and how much he wishes to not go back to the way he was. In All Quiet butterflies reveal this and show how Paul has loss his innocence.
Horses display strength, honor and loyalty in the real world. Yet when these horses are turned to battle in All Quiet it truly shows how man has crossed the line in what’s right and wrong. This is why the third symbol in the book is horses. While the men battle at night after a bombardment Paul hears horses crying. Moved by this he says,” it is not men, they could not cry so terribly”(62). Man has crossed the line in the book by using peaceful creatures to help kill and having the enemy kill them , there screams are showing this. Screams of the horses also show how this war is terrible and is ripping the soldiers apart for no man should be allowed to kill another let alone an animal that has not done anything. When listening to the horses Detering has enough and says angrily,” God! For God’s sake! Shoot them”(62).This reveals feelings towards young recruits injured in battle for they are so young yet there injuries will cause them to suffer and immense amount of pain and ruins their lives which causes the veterans, which have seen this all to often, to want to end their misery. Also, this is showing how the men have become so accustomed to seeing the death of people that when a horse dies it throws them off and shows how the men truly feel about their comrades. Horses show how man can adapt to an environment and throws his innocence down the drain if he must. Yet when some creature such as a horse is wounded it throws the brigade off and reveals innocence can still be brought back through strange events. Yet this innocence will again be thrown away after the beautiful creatures die.
In the book All Quiet Remarque clearly shows how the symbols of boots, butterflies, and horses reveals the loss of innocence. He uses these symbols to make clear that, because of war Paul has lost his innocence and whenever a symbol or event reminds him of his childhood he shuns it. The fact is war destroys and it has changed these young men’s lives forever.
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