All Quiet on the Western Front

Another period piece, funny to say that when I am referring to a book from the twentieth century… All Quiet on the Western Front.  If you ever thought about war, the physical and mental exhaustion of it, this book captures it like none other I have read.  What’s it like to lose a leg, be removed from home, and then come home.  The psychological fatigue that one must go through – bombs dropping, will I die tonight?  How do I go on?  Why does Johnny have more energy than I?  I am hungry, where will I find sustenance?  My youngest son, Alex, has recently presented to his mom and I of his interest to join the military as part of his college experience.  If you knew my history, attended a catholic/military high school and my dislike for the ROTC program, you’d see that's what you may wish for those you love to stay away from, (tends to attract them) and frustrates a loving parent.  What motivates someone to want to join the military?  The storyteller/narrator, Paul, is jeered to join the military by his teacher (funny the teacher doesn’t join up, huh?) and he gets to the front line and “live war.”  It isn’t a pretty picture, for sure.  Paul battles, returns home to a ravaged home, and then back to the front.  Throughout the process he loses his comrades and is forced to face a different life near the end of the story, a life after war.  Since his whole existence was centered on the battles when it ends he squarely faces his new truth “what is left to live for”…  facing the death and destruction he lived through, and helped cause (killing another man and watching him die slowly), what else could one feel?  What is the threshold for war to be justified?  I guess I am a pacifist, or follow my role model, MLK, who said there is another way.  We should seek to always find that other way.  War mongers, this book is not for you.  Others, a sad reality that we see too often.  While the story may be dated, the theme remains true today.