The story “All Quiet on the Western Front” is centered around the German war front during World War I. Paul Baumer, our narrator, is a young soldier within the German infantry along with a group of his friends. Baumer and his friends were urged to enlist in the war by their patriotic teacher who glorified the fighting and how they would be saving their homeland. Our story starts out on the front lines where Paul and a group of his friends are fighting for their survival. Due to all the death and mayhem surrounding them they have become disillusioned by the war. They have quickly learned that it’s not the generals or captains out risking their lives, but the ordinary men, like themselves, who die and suffer through the gloom of the war. They …show more content…
At home again, he recognizes that the war has changed him. He feel uncomfortable in civilian closes and feel like he doesn’t know how to interact with non-serviceman. Paul begins to resent how everyone in hi hometown act as if the war is a great and wonderful thing, a game even. He is upset because no one there quite understands the true horrors of war time and how they probably never will. While he is away, Paul and his go for a swim and end up coming together with a group of French girls. This is the first time Paul actually begins to feel that the “enemy” are just normal people. Near the end of his leave, Paul sends some time at a training camp near a group of Russian war time prisoners. Paul again feels sympathy for the “enemy”; he doesn’t understand how war could make an enemies of people who have never met. Before long, Paul is reunited with his friends when he is sent back his company. While his back, the Kaiser (German Emperor), visits the front line to try and boost esprit de corps. However, Paul and then men are all very disappointed because it become clear to them that the Kaiser is merely a small man with a weak
War can destroy a young man mentally and physically. One might say that nothing good comes out of war, but in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, there is one positive characteristic: comradeship. Paul and his friends give Himmelstoss a beating in which he deserves due to his training tactics. This starts the brotherhood of this tiny group. As explosions and gunfire sound off a young recruit in his first battle is gun-shy and seeks reassurance in Paul's chest and arms, and Paul gently tells him that he will get used to it. The relationship between Paul and Kat is only found during war, in which nothing can break them apart. The comradeship between soldiers at war is what
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is the story of young Paul Baumer and Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most every war novel in that it shows the true emotions and feelings of a soldier on the battle field. It does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country, but strips away the romanticized view of soldier’s war to portray the raw feelings that soldiers have in the midst of warfare. The troop does not die all together but they are seen dropping one by one. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle on the Western Front move forward, Paul’s values, along with those of other the soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s
When Paul Baumer returns from the war to visit his family, he is unable to relate to them anymore. He says: “I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world,” He has been away for so long, that he feels very distant from them. The people back home don't understand the pain and terrors of war that Paul has experienced. This makes him feel misunderstood by his loved ones, and he is unsure of how to share his thoughts with them. While his father thinks of the war as an honorable and respectable place to serve, Paul sees it as a violent and scary place to be.
Germany betrayed Paul Baumer and his comrades. All Quiet on the Western Front is told from the perspective of Paul Baumer, an enlistee in the German army during World War One. He enlisted as a teenager after a push from his schoolteacher to fight for his country. Paul and his fellow comrades experience the horrors of war as they are told to kill and lay down their lives for their country. Paul goes through battles, injuries, the loss of friends and comrades, and he inevitably loses his life.
He has changed since he joined the army, that he hardly recognizes who he was before. Paul used to think about school, women, and the future. Now the only thing on his mind is staying alive. The soldiers have become numb to death after seeing it so often. After Paul kills Gerard Duval his comrades remark “he doesn’t need to lose sleep over it” (229).
Many of Paul's fellow army men do not survive. After the loss of Paul's closest friends,
In the last chapter Paul has had many terrible and horrific wartime experience and he is the last living recruit from his original group. During this time the German people are getting anxious about the ending the war. While out on the field Paul inhales poisonous gas and is given 14 days to go home. However, Paul has a weird feeling about returning home because, he has no future goals for his life. The only thing Paul can think about is the empty shell of people the war has produced. Later in this chapter Paul finally dies on a quiet day. Leaving the last words on the war “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Leaving Paul glad that the thing that destroyed him most ended. The thing that ripped something pure out of him and replaced it with emptiness.
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is story of the fictional character Paul Baumer and his troop Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most war novels in that it does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country. The way that the story is told strips away the romanticized view warfare and portrays the raw emotions that come with being on the front lines of a battle. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle progress, Paul’s values, along with those of the other soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s own passing.
When someone thinks of war, it is usually the uniform, the pride, that comes to mind. The aftermath of war, to those who do not know much about it, will come as a surprise. In the movie, All Quiet on the Western Front, the character, Paul Baumer, enters the war as an innocent person; with no idea on the effects, it may have on him. In the beginning of the movie Paul is shown as an innocent eighteen-year-old teenage boy who likes to draw and read. It is when he enters military training that his innocence starts to wither away. During military training, Paul no longer does what he likes to do, and only spends his time training on how to become a good German soldier. During training, Paul is tortured by his training officer, Corporal Himmelstoss.
They say “War, War never changes” this quote to some extent has many merits that true but some it lacks, it is proven wrong single-handily by WW1. People are drafted into this war happy-go-lucky but what war makes them into is nothing that someone would wish their worst enemy. Throughout the movie the transformation was marked in many ways by all the horrors that war could bring, be emotional, mental, or physical every soldier when through a transformation whether it was tangible or not. Paul and his friends journey through a transformation that can only be categorized with words akin to horrifying. Throughout the beginning of the movie Paul's journey is marked with both tough times and fun times, with him and his friends still in a state
He states that when he goes home, his family will be shocked to hear this language. Paul treats his lingual freedom as privilege that soldiers have, and shows the benefits of living a soldier’s life. He refers to the front as if it were a paradise, for he can use vulgar language and not worry about manners and decorum. He treats his service as a time for relaxation, recreation, and a little excitement. This attitude becomes short-lived as the realities of war sink in. When Paul volunteers for reconnaissance one night, he becomes stranded in No Man’s Land (the area between opposing trenches) and begins to realize the brutality of war and starts to lose his own humanity. At the beginning of the book, Paul shows care towards his fellow soldiers and treats his service as an adventure by his education of the recruits and his excitement towards the boundaries of his vocabulary.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul is morphed from an innocent child into a war veteran who has a new look on society. Paul used to have a carefree life where he was able to be a kid, but when he enlisted into the army it all changed. Paul became a person whose beliefs were changed because of the war. Paul doesn't believe in society anymore especially parents, elders, and school, which used to play a big part in his life. He changed his beliefs because society does not really understand how bad war really is and pushed many young men, who were not ready, into the army. Paul connects with his fellow soldiers because they are going through the same situation and
Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a
Paul Bäumer is the central character of the story and is also the narrator. Before the war Paul was a kind and sensitive teenager. After his experiences in the war he learned to let go of these feelings and that he could no longer be sympathetic or have fear. There is a point in the story when Paul is granted a short leave from the army and he returns home. His horrible experiences while at war leave him unable to speak of it with his family. He does not feel at home with his family and he feels that all he has known is the war and he cannot imagine a future without the war. Even though Paul feels that he needs to let go of his emotions, they sometimes still show in the story. There is a point in the story when Paul instinctively kills an enemy soldier. He immediately feels horrible inside and regrets it as he finds out the soldier had a family at home. Kat, which is short for Katczinsky, is Paul’s best friend in the story. Even though he is not a school friend of Paul’s he still becomes friends with the middle-aged man. Throughout the story it is