In The Road Back, Remarque answers the questions posed by Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front about what will happen to the youth who were caught up in World War I. In its simple structure, The Road Back recounts the traumatic times Birkholz and his friends experience. They return to a chaotic world in which inflation and profiteering are rampant and food is scarce. The returning soldiers are indeed superfluous, especially the disabled.

Within the narrative, suicide becomes the only solution for many like Ludwig Breyer and George Rahe; moreover, conditioned to killing and violence at the front, Albert Trosske, upon learning that his girlfriend has been unfaithful, calmly shoots her lover. Still, Remarque wishes to emphasize that despite the war and its aftereffects, life goes on, and thus people must re-establish purpose and meaning to their lives, an affirmation that becomes evident in Tjaden's marrying...