Erich Maria Remarque's use of simile in Im Westen nichts Neues contributes greatly to the depth of the narrative and dispels the notion that this anti-war novel is nothing more than a simple soldier's account of the First World War. Definitions of simile and metaphor have existed since Aristotle. This study, however, treats simile as the literary equal of metaphor. Simile can be an even more powerful literary device than metaphor when cleverly and properly used. Remarque purposefully chose his more than 150 similes, many containing animal or nature images. Nearly all are used to show vividly and honestly war's reality while at the same time dismissing war's glory as a lie. Remarque also employs simile for antithesis. Seen through the perspective of the author, Remarque, and the narrator, Paul Baumer, the many similes represent the development Baumer undergoes up until the story's tragic end.

The novel Im Westen Nichts Neues first appeared in Germany in January 1929 and became an overnight success. Its author, Erich Maria Remarque, was a shy, quiet man who had not anticipated such success. His novel was written to be a fictitious account of the lives of a few students-turned -soldier and their comrades in the front -line trenches of World War I. This was a unique perspective on the war. The earlier books about the war had been mostly the published, factual memoirs of former officers and as such were written from an elitist and nationalist point of view. Remarque's fictional characters, conversely, were young privates doing their duty and suffering through the dehumanizing effects of their military training and life at the front. They lost touch with their past and came to be able to see nothing in their future except war. These soldiers found themselves lost between a past with which they were no longer able to identify and a future in which, because of the terror and daily life-and-death struggle they currently faced, they could not imagine being able to take anything seriously. Coming out in favor of the novel were the critics aligned with the liberal and left -liberal political arenas. This group of critics proclaimed that the novel portrayed the truth about the war in all of its horror. Having been written from the perspective of the unknown German soldier, it, unlike any other heretofore published work about the war, told the story of the every day, non-elitist soldier and his thoughts. The novel was pacifistic in nature and was therefore in line with the current world opinion, following closely on the heels of the international signing of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact. On the other hand, the Communist left and the entire spectrum of the political right denounced Im Westen Nichts Neues as a lie and Remarque as an anti-German author bent on the degradation of the German national honor. The Communists decried the novel as being arbeiterfeindlich because it did not recognize the political- economic causes of the war and because it contained no call for the oppressed to revolt against the upper classes. They therefore deemed Remarque a member of the sterile-minded bourgeoisie. The rightists, in their denunciation of the novel, took exception to the lack of heroes and glorification of the war in the book. Kameradschaft was given the credit for heroism. This idea was repugnant to the nationalists, and in fact worked as a threat to their reason for existence. With Remarque further depicting the soldiers as acting instinctively to protect themselves from annihilation rather than fighting with thoughts of the glorious renewal of the fatherland, it was too much. They proclaimed the novel to be a lie which had been written by, among other descriptions of Remarque, a tender, pacifistic little soul who had never seen a battlefield in his life.

Literature, films, and even the daily news often address war, an event that unfortunately has been a constant in modern society. Large scale, modern warfare with global involvement began with the First World War, and following the war, a global war literature boom occurred. Two bestselling novels whose anti-war themes still resound today, Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, emerged from this sea of literature. Both of these novels focus on the pain that is inherent in warfare and its detrimental effects on society as well as on individual soldiers. The graphic imagery and anti-war sentiment that is present in these novels has generated controversy throughout their histories; however, the popularity of both works has prevailed, and Remarque and Trumbo’s novels remain two of the most referenced in academic disciplines as well as in popular culture. This thesis explores the long-lasting success of these two works as anti-war novels, as measured by initial sales and popularity as well as by a plethora of mass cultural adaptations.