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"All Quiet On The Western Front"

Our in class discussion was on the loss of identity which I feel was one of the main focal points in this book.  The idea of being young and going off to war before you even know who you are.  It's scary to think about going to war in the first place but everything you have to face with either surviving or not surviving the war is a difficult concept to relate.  I think that a lot of people when they come back from war especially a war as drastic as WWI would in some ways have preferred not to have made it home.  It's scary when you have no idea who you are and have nothing to keep you going.  Everyone needs something in their lives that is important to them that they can identify themselves with.  Being in a war would be dehumanizing and will bring out a more animalistic side of a person because of the need to survive.  I can't imagine people that come back from a war and be "okay" with all of the killing that they had to do or see done.  Coming back from that to our trivial world of I "need" that new pair of shoes would be an extremely difficult transition.  The way that this book was written you could really see things from Paul's perspective (1st person) and take a walk in his shoes.  I think it would be difficult from not knowing who you are and what kind of person you are and then going to war where you either let your animal instincts take over or wind up dead.  It's a kill or be killed situation.  So only knowing yourself as an animal (if you choose to kill) and then coming back to a civilized world where animalistic instincts are punished and having no use for the only thing you know would be scary.  It would be difficult to look in the mirror and know all that you have done and it would be hard to see or discover another side of yourself.  I thought it was a really interesting book and really got me thinking about identity which is a really important concept that can really make a difference in someone's life.