All Quiet on the Western Front

 

The United States observes Memorial Day today to remember those who have served and fallen in war. It seemed a good day to look at Erich Maria Remarque's enduring novel of life in the trenches during World War One.

The first sentence of All Quiet on the Western Front is, "We are at rest five miles behind the front." 

Many of the elements we've seen in effective first sentences are here. There is a subject, someone to focus on. In this case, it is "We." There is a situation, "five miles behind the front." There is a word that raises the stakes in the strong final position, "front." "Front" means the leading edge where one side of a war meets the other, and brings with it the deadly violence and and risk not only to life, but to one's entire country that comes with war. 

One interesting choice that Remarque makes is to start the story "at rest." This is not the point of highest conflict. It is a break, instead: a moment of relative peace and safety. The story begins a little more softly than if it started mid-battle. The point-of-view character can reflect on the situation. 

The degree of safety is "five miles." Whatever knowledge we have about this kind of war will influence how much shelter we feel that distance creates. 

"At rest" is another military term. With "front" to offer it the context of war, it gives us an additional clue about who "we" are – a group of soldiers. 

Another interesting choice that Remarque makes is to write the sentence in present tense, using the verb "are" instead of "were." Although present tense is common in certain current genres, past tense is more common, and it was even more the default in the 1920s when All Quiet on the Western Front was first published. Present tense draws us closer to the events. We don't have the distance of knowing that someone is telling us of something that happened before. With "are," Remarque creates the illusion that the narrator is talking to us as the events happen. It places the action of the book in an evolving now – and doesn't allow the narrator the implied safety that telling the tale later (which means they lived to tell it) would. 

By starting with a fragile moment of rest, instead of a battle, Remarque saves himself room for intensifying conflict. He also allows some time to consider what war means rather than immersing us in the experience immediately. The perspective on war, in addition to the depiction of war, helped make All Quiet on the Western Front a book that continues to speak to us a century after its events.

However you observe Memorial Day, please grant a moment to remember the lives lost to war. 

Graphic elements by Ken Silbert

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash