All Quiet on the Western Front focuses on the "iron youth  of Paul Baumer, his classmates and their entire generation of teenage boys who enlist to fight on the German side of World War I. These young men enter the war full of enthusiasm and national pride, but soon realize that life on the front lines is nothing like they were told or how they imagined it to be, resulting in them being destroyed from either the physical pressures of the war, or the mental burden they were forced to carry, thus an entire generation was lost. Both soldiers and war were perceived at this time as heroic and glorious by their society, which encouraged these young men to join the military one way or another. They were expected to go to war, quickly defeat the enemy, and return home as victorious hero's. Unfortunately, soon after experiencing life in the trenches they realize that the romantic idea's they believed about the war were terribly wrong. All of these previous beliefs are destroyed as soon as they encounter the harsh reality they were now apart of. Paul describes this life consisting of, "Shells, gas clouds, and flotillas of tanks ” shattering, corroding, death. Dysentery, influenza, typhus ” scalding, choking death. Trenches, hospitals,[and] the common grave  and in Pauls opinion "there [were] no other possibilities  (283). These young men began to question the purpose for their deaths and are forced to suppress their emotions in order to remain mentally stable, but even they eventually lose hope. An entire generation on both sides of the war is lost this way, as they develop their sense of identity after being stripped of their innocence and humanity. The only thing this generation is left with are the thoughts of survival by any means necessary and the strong bonds that they have built with one another, which too does not last for long. In the beginning of Remarque's novel the audience is introduced to a group of carefree teenage boys, who have been coerced mainly by their school teacher Kantorek, that joining the army and defending their fatherland would bring them glory and honor. Not only were the boys influenced by their teacher, but by their parent's and society as well. Kantorek encouraged his students with the rhetoric that they were the "iron youth  therefore invincible, and parents according to Paul "were ready with the word "coward" (15) for those who did not join to fight in the war. This influence was heavy for Paul, his group of classmates, and most of his generation, which lead them all to glorify the war and volunteer willingly or out of fear of being ridiculed. Another factor of this impact was that at this age, the boys were very susceptible, as they were still finding their sense of identity. Most had not even decided what they wanted for their futures, so naturally the thought of uniting together and fulfilling this common goal for their homeland seemed like a great opportunity to find themselves and a place where they belonged. Once enlisted, the main character Paul still has a reminiscence of his bright, kind, and youthful spirit, but his reasoning is already beginning to change. Paul and some of his classmates are assigned to the same platoon and go through extreme training together with Himmelstoss as their commanding officer, "We were trained in the army for ten weeks and in this time more profoundly influenced than by ten years at school  (Paul 21)