The war novels before "All Quiet on the Western Front" they tended to romanticize what war was like, making others believe that war was a symbol of glory, honor, patriotic duty, and adventure, "All Quiet on the Western Front" sets out to show people how actually the war was: An unromantic vision of fear, meaninglessness, and butchery. World War I demanded this depiction more than any war before it—it completely altered mankind’s conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles that lasted for months, and its gruesome new technological advancements (e.g., machine guns, poison gas, trenches) that made killing easier and more impersonal than ever before.
