Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

For better or worse, war inevitably changes a person. Soldiers in the war witness and live through such traumatic obscenities, that scar them both emotionally and physically. Paul Bäumer, the main character in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, is illustrated as a twenty year old soldier who faces various challenges in his time on the front line. Paul was in the regiment known as the Second Company, and was enlisted with German schoolboys at the age of eighteen. During the time that Bäumer served in the army, he lost the ties to his former self. He became a whole different person due to all the hardships he faced from the time that he served. The novel based on the First World War, focuses on the dangers

of trench warfare, and the various troubles faced by the soldiers throughout the war.

After being enlisted to join the war at the age of eighteen, Paul Bäumer was a different person by the time the war had ended. Paul did not worry about what would happen to himself during the war, because he thought about how he had nothing to go back to when the war discontinued(?) He thought his family would have forgotten about him, and he did not have a wife or a job to go back to, therefore believed fighting in the war was his only calling. Through the presence of his friends, Bäumer felt as if he was at home. While Paul’s comrades had wives, children, and jobs to attend to after the war, Paul did not know where he stood next to them. He had nothing other than his family, and the war was his only form of life.The first to die from Bäumer’s classmates was Joseph Behm. He had died due to an injury to his eye during an attack, while his comrades left him lying there for dead because they were not able to bring him back. ( edit this sentence.) At the beginning of his recruitment as a young man, Paul got closer to Katczinsky Stanislaus, a fellow comrade. Kat helped pull Bäumer out of the barrage when he was wounded for the first time( maybe sentence.) Kat was known for his capability of finding food and other resources, his “sixth sense,” and he was the smartest person Bäumer knew. Paul was usually with Kat, Müller, Albert Kropp, Tjaden, Franz Kemmerich, and Haie Westhus. Kemmerich was one of the first to die out of Paul’s comrades. Kemmerich had his foot amputated because of a flesh wound in his thigh he had received during (battle?) Kemmerich was not aware that his foot was amputated until later, and Müller had been insisting on having in his possession, Kemmerich's lace-up English boots.

Paul and his comrades discussed what their lives would be like when the war was over, and what things they would go on about(write a better topic sentence.) Many of them fantasized about women and hoped to settle down.

Paul was still undecided on what he planned on doing after there was peace. Bäumer was not as enthusiastic as he should have been when he was given a fourteen day leave, because he did not want to leave his friends. The new life he had developed with them in the time they served together was the only thing that kept him going, and he believed that was the only thing left for him. When Paul returned to the familiar setting that he was born and raised into, but yet he felt different. Suddenly feeling almost paralyzed, Paul tried to keep himself from falling from the sudden overwhelming rush of emotions he was feeling from seeing his family. He did not know how to react, because he was still in shock. After settling down a little, the familiarity of his surroundings still did not make him feel the way he thought they would. “But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things (Remarque 160).” Although everything stayed intact from how he remembered it last, he felt indifferent towards his surroundings. He had lost touch with his old self, and just wanted to go back to his regiment. Things that interested him before did not anymore. Even with his favorite foods cooked, Paul found no comfort at his home. Paul’s mother had

prepared for him his favorite foods; potato cakes and whortleberries, but yet he still could not find any feelings of comfort(Fix sentence.) He was not happy he was on leave, and wondered how his friends were and what they were doing. His return to his home was not easy for him. He was confronted with many questions about the front line, and did not know what to say about the horrid things he has seen and suffered through. He did not know how to tell his mother or anyone for that matter what consequences soldiers were faced by daily. Unlike his mother, Bäumer’s father was fascinated how life on the front line was.
“There is nothing he likes more than just hearing about it. I realize he does not know that a man cannot talk of such things; I would do it willingly, but it is too dangerous for me to put these things into words. I am afraid they might then become gigantic and i may no longer be able to master them (Remarque 165).”
By talking about the horrendous things occurring in the front line, Bäumer feared the brutal reality of it becoming more appalling.

After his leave time(word in a better way), Bäumer had to spend four weeks at a training camp before returning to the front line.

The camp where Bäumer was training at, was next to a Russian prison camp. Bäumer witnessed the struggles the Russian prisoners dealt with(look through book and write more of their struggles). Bäumer was surprised at the sight of the prisoners moving into the training camp, in spite of the wire fence that separated the two camps. Paul, over the time, had gotten close with some of the prisoners and learned that some of them play music,and also shared with them his cigarettes. Bäumer was surprised at how the prisoners were their enemies because of their “honest peasant faces,” and wondered how they were finding any form of food in the garbages since food was scarce. Paul had gotten close with some of the prisoners and learned that some of them play music,and also shared with them his cigarettes. Before leaving the camp, Paul decides to give the prisoners two potato cakes. When he finally returned to what he considered home, Paul sees Kat, Müller, Tjaden, and Kropp and is glad to see them still alive and uninjured. Paul is informed about the visit from the Kaiser, but is disappointed when the Kaiser does not live up to his expectations. Paul volunteers to go to No Man’s Land, and gather information about the enemy’s stances, but gets lost on his way back, and hides out in a ditch because of multiple bombardments(. After Paul, a Frenchman jumps into

the ditch, and Paul instinctively stabs him. Paul explains to the dead body that he did not want to kill him, and finds the man’s address and plans on sending his family money anonymously. Bäumer returns to his trench, sees Kat and Kropp, and tells them about the unpleasant kill (find better word) and how he had no choice. Paul has never killed anyone in a hand-to-hand combat before, and this new experience that he faced was agonizing. Consequently, Paul experienced more and more agony through the death of his comrades.