There are numerous times in which ancient
memories arise in us, and we all wish that a time would arrive in our lives
that all of those memories would just disappear. The disappearing of memories,
especially childhoods, seems to be a reoccurring theme in All Quiet on the
Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque; in order to create his
desired effect, he uses repetition.
As imagined by Remarque, when
soldiers go to war, the memory of their childhood completely disappears. The
soldiers are at war, and the odd fact that their childhood memories are
suddenly gone from their head comes up quite a few times. It seems as if the
army has taken the memories straight out of their brains, there’s nothing left.
Remarque says, “our early life is cut out” (19) and “nothing remains” (20). At
first this seemed like a small detail, most people don’t forget their childhood
just from going somewhere, but the second time it is mentioned, it really sinks
in. These men have no memory past arriving at the hell on Earth called war. By
doing this, Remarque is trying to convey the true affect that war really has on
people. It’s so traumatizing, that people have no memory of the good times that
once existed in their lives. Repetition really emphasized what an important
theme “memory loss” has become.
