A central issue in the novel `All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque was the hidden cost of war. The hidden costs of war are the mental anguish soldiers are left with during and after the war. The feeling of emptiness and isolation from the world and not able to relate back to ordinary life after all.

The young group of boys were pressured and swayed by their schoolmaster to enlist their names. They were told glorious stories and lies about war by Kantorek, who glorified war. But it was only a matter of time before they found out the appalling truth. "We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from the truth, we had suddenly learned to see." This was Paul filling us with their background...