Disappearing Memories

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.