Cultural Research on All Quiet On The Western FrontIn the gruesome novel All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of a young boy named Paul Bäumer who fights in World War I in as a German soldier. Paul is the protagonist and narrator for most of the novel. The reader can see, through Paul, the horrors of war. Critics agree that the novel is credible. “Paul’s story is the realization of the horror of war…” (Tighe 60). The setting of the novel is in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Germany. Many cultural aspects are present in this anti-war novel. Note accurately describes cultural aspects, male roles, family relationships, economics and historical references to life during World War I in Germany and France for soldiers on the Western Front during the last two years of World War I between 1916 and 1918. .“Erich Paul Remark, as he was known before changing his name to Erich Maria Remarque in 1920, was born on June 22, 1898 in Osnabrück, Germany” (Henningfeld 10). He actually fought in World War I on the Western Front during the same period the novel is based on. This makes his account of the war through the character of Paul more credible. Additionally, Note's mother actually died of cancer while he was in the war. The death of his mother and the war itself had a huge emotional impact on Remark (Henningfeld 10). “Therefore, he began working on All Quiet on the Western Front for cathartic purposes” (Henningfeld 11). After its publication in 1929, the novel became a success throughout the world, except with the Nazis. “Remarque quickly became the subject of intense media and political scrutiny. Most notably, the German nationalist-socialist ...... middle of paper ......e asks its main character to make sense of his experiences by working through the episodes of his life in an attempt to create order from experiential chaos. The fundamental immorality of war lies in the blatant use of individuals to achieve goals they do not understand or identify with” (Schlieper 3). This is exactly what Remark does in his astonishing novel. Note experienced the horror of the murderous war and had to express his feelings in a fictional novel. “The trauma of war cannot be ignored, and by engaging with alternative narratives, historians can begin to represent and consider this trauma in their work” (Wilson264). The novel is credible because the author was part of the culture presented in the book. Even though it is a work of fiction, the cultural aspects of the novel can be relied upon in relation to the actual culture of World War I..