Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

During the war, many soldiers may feel as though they are losing their self-identity. Having that one person they can confide in, who share the same troubles, tends to be one of the few things that helps them manage the chaos of battle. Thus, camaraderie is the key to survival during the time of war. The classic war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, illustrates an image of comradeship through the narrator Paul Baumer and his close friend Kat. The scenes throughout the novel between the two friends show how heavily they rely on one another.

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

Paul and his platoon have been turned into machines due to the war, controlled by

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

     “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another (263).” Powerful changes result from horrifying experiences. Paul Baumer, the protagonists of Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front utters these words signifying the loss of his humanity and the reduction to a numbed creature, devoid of emotion. Paul’s character originates in the novel as a young adult, out for an adventure, and eager to serve his country. He never realizes the terrible pressures that war

Fear drives Paul and his comrades together and drives them to live not to feel like nothingness. By Paul joining the military he makes friends with Tjaden, Albert, Kropp, and Muller they create a bond, a brotherhood. Fear of dying and war drives them together because it gives them something to bond about, To have something in common. The fear of dying drives them to survive because without fear they would not exist, but voices and memories. Paul would be all alone and have thing nothing. Paul creates a different bond with a man Gerard Duval. Gerard is an enemy, but once Paul realize that he just like me he feels survivors guilt for killing him. He calls Gerard comrade in French his language. He finds out that Gerard was a printer, friend, husband, and a father. Paul wants to make it up be writing a letter, but can not because he can not write in French but than starts thinking he can send money to Gerard's family. This is an example of Paul’s fear of getting judge for killing this man. To get confronted with his guilt. The fear of loosing himself. He does he looses that he looses his

Considering the boys were only eighteen when they enlisted in the army they did not have a chance to experience life after high school. They had been cut off from life just as they were beginning to live it. Paul remembers that as a high school student, he wrote poetry. He now has no interest in, or time for, poetry, and his parents seem to him a cloudy and unreliable memory. Reminiscing about his home life upset him. Paul soon learned that he would receive a leave of seventeen days; fourteen days leave and three days for traveling. Paul also learns that he will not return to the front immediately after he is done with leave but to a camp for a training course. After Paul learns of his leave he says farewell to his fellow comrades. He begins to worry about if the men he has grown so fond of will still be there. Despite all of this Paul packs up and heads to the train station to leave for home. As the train approaches his hometown all the memories come flooding back to him. When Paul finally got to his parents house he realized his life will never be

Being in a war zone for years on end can have a huge toll on people and their sanity. For Paul and his comrades in the trenches facing life or death every day, their situation for many men would lead to further problems such as shell shock(PTSD). Paul points this out and explains what had got him through this within the novel, "Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad. Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us. We did not break down, but adapted ourselves; our twenty years, which made many another thing so grievous, helped us in this. But by far the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war—comradeship."(26-27) Here

When he is reunited with his mother "[they] say very little," but when she finally asks him if it was "very bad out there" Paul lies. In trying to protect her by lying, Paul creates a separation between his mother and himself. As Paul sees it, the tragedies and horrors of war are not for the uninitiated. Sadly, the true nature of war further separates the two generations.

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.

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

As mentioned previously, the story is told from Paul's point of view. This view of his is parallel to that of Remarque's. Remarque's characterization of paul and the other soldiers is intended to convey information and instruction to the reader. For example the way these characters are described instructs the reader in the needless suffering and loss brought on by war. The author makes a point about military leaders through one of the characters. Kropp notes about rise in rank, "As sure as they get a stripe or a star they become different men, just as though they'd swallowed concrete" (43). Kat mentions that military life brings out the worst in men, particularly the abuse of power over lesser men. This is a significant part that the author adds into the book because it illustrates a metaphor of the greater powers wanting to attack the weaker countries to gain more power; imperialism, which is one of the main causes of the war. In chapter 4, one of the most dramatic in the book,

While the disconnection allows the soldier to adapt to the brutal war environment, it inhibits them from re-entering society. When he takes his leave, he is unable to feel comfortable at home. Even if Paul had survived the war physically, he most likely would not have integrated back into society suitably. The emotional disconnection inhibits soldiers from mourning their fallen friends and comrades. However, Paul was somewhat less than able to completely detach himself from his feelings, and there are several moments in the when he feels himself pulled down by emotion. These rush of feelings indicate the magnitude to which war has automated Paul to cut himself off from feeling, as when he says, with unbridled understatement, “Parting from my friend Albert Kropp was very hard. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army (p. 269) .”

1) Paul before the war was a sensitive and caring person but during the war he changes and becomes a person with very few emotions. Katczinsky is Paul's best friend in the army and acts like the father or provider for his group when they need food and supplies. Muller is a stubborn person and worries about his life plans after war. Kropp is one of paul's friend in the war and he likes to study the cause of war. 2) Kantorek is the boys teacher and he gets inside their head and gets them to enlist in the military voluntarily.

That aspect of his previous life seems unreal and incomprehensible, perhaps even vague because since he came to the war he feels cut off from his early life. It is as if he has lost the person he used to be. Not only does Paul feel he has lost himself as he used to be, but he also believes that he would not be able to recapture his past, even if given the chance: "…these memories of former times do not awaken desire so much as sorrow…Once we had such desires-but they return not. They are past, they belong to another world that is gone from us." (Remarque, pg.106).  From this quote it is clear that Paul feels his childhood is out of reach. He has lost his desire to recapture his memories, perhaps recognising that they may not mean all that much to him now anyway, due to the fact that he feels he has already lost the world those memories originated from. When Paul returns home on leave, he realises that it may not be him losing a previous world of memories, rather the previous world is losing him: "I cannot feel at home amongst these things…There is a distance, a veil between us." (Remarque, Pg.139).  Paul feels out of place when he returns home, reinforcing his fears that the war has changed him irreversibly. As Paul recognises this occurring change throughout the novel, his thoughts and actions become reclusive. After killing an enemy soldier in battle, the effects of the war on his sense of