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earth beneath them all. Paul states: “Our hands are earth, our bodies clay and our eyes pools of
rain. We do not know whether we still live,” indicating that the war has leveled both the soldiers
and the earth to the point that they join together spiritually (287). As a result, the soldiers reach a
new level of uncertainty because of their perceived closeness with the earth; their souls have
become nothing more than the mud and water churned and destroyed by the war. They have tried
to dig under the earth like animals; they have risked their lives to put horses out of their misery
and died attempting to do the same for dogs (279). After all of this, it becomes clear to the
narrator that there is little distinction between him and the natural world. As a result, nature’s
apparent abandonment of and violence toward the soldiers throughout the novel appears less
cruel; rather, the natural world as a whole is acting out of the same trauma that the soldiers
experience. Just as Paul should not be expected to be retain his youthful joy on the battlefield,
the novel asks that soldiers and readers reconsider the protective role nature typically plays and
perceive it as more of a victim than a powerful figure.

Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front, nature is portrayed in ways that are notably
similar to the portrayals of the soldiers. Like Paul and his friends, nature is a victim, broken to
pieces by bombs and shells. However, it is also an aggressor and a sufferer—the mist represents
the twisted function natural elements fulfil in war, and the cries of dying animals reflect the cries
of the earth itself. Just like the Germans—and the English, and the French, and the Russians—
nature is twisted until it is hardly recognizable, unreliable, and volatile. Nature has been broken
and reshaped beyond its original existence and, like the individual soldiers, made an unwitting
weapon against creatures no more responsible or independent than itself. The pain that nature
suffers is embodied most clearly in the misery of innocent creatures, especially wounded horses
whose pain speaks for the weeping earth and tortured soldiers. Their suffering, the suffering all

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