All Quiet On The Western Front: Chapter Analysis

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Rachaelle Tongol Professor Anthony Pino English 101A 16 October 2014 All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about a German soldier, Paul Baumer, 19, and about his and his friends trials they go through while serving in World War I. The trials Paul goes through are not only physical stress but also mental stress. With all he has been through, Paul feels as though he is detached from civilian life and feels so young but witness too much more then he should have at his age. In the first chapter, Paul recalled his schoolmaster, Kantorek, at his old school encouraging him and his friends to enlist in the war, telling them to show their pride in their country saying, “Won’t you join up, comrades?”(11), to which all the class mates joined with his persuasion. When the first of their classmate had died while at the front, this made Paul resent people, like Kantorek that suggested volunteer, for making the war sound better than it was. They had trust in their leaders such as Kantorek and their parents, believing in their word and insight. Once they had seen their first death that trust was out the window. …show more content…

He feels like his youth is lost. Everything that he had known before the war doesn’t matter anymore. At the same time he feels old, experiencing things a young doesn’t see in a normal life. “How long has it been? Weeks—moths—years? Only days. We see time pass in the colour-less faces of the dying, we cram food into us, we run, we throw, we shoot, we kill, we lie about, we are feeble and spent, and nothing supports us but the knowledge that there are still feeblers , still more spent, still more helpless ones out there who, with staring eyes, look upon us as gods that escape death many times.”

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