Echoes of War: The Great War’s Impact on Literature

This paper examines the works produced by: Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically to show how their writings recorded and translated the experiences of soldiers during World War I, and their struggle to assimilate into civilian society afterward. By examining authors and novels from varying geographic and national background, common themes of bitterness, trauma, and disillusionment are found in men that fought on both sides of the conflict. Literature’s reflection of these scars appears in the lived experiences woven into the writings by the authors, and the reactions of the wider public that shared similar stories to those the authors from their own time in the war. Ultimately, the works of fiction also show that while veterans of World War I shared many similar experiences many of them either failed to fully cope with their demons or found methods of finding peace with them