World War I undoubtedly changed the political boundaries and economic system of Europe (as seen in Chapter 3 of Findley’s Twentieth Century World textbook). However, in the midst of all the political and economic changes, the human toll is sometimes overlooked. With the declaration of World War I, an entire generation was set up to be lost. It is this “lost generation” that is presented in Erich Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western …showed first 75 words of 1464 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1464 total…the loss of a generation. Whether it was soldiers who were killed in the war, men who suffered an emotional beating (that would never allow them to function correctly in a society of peace time again), or the women and children displaced when the men left for war makes no difference. What matters is that with the systematic manipulation, social rearrangement and desensitization that occurred during World War I, the world lost an entire generation.