Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul, the main character is a nineteen-year-old man who voluntarily joins the German army to fight in World War I against the French. Paul went into the war full of nationalism and ready to fight for his country. Soon after entering training, Paul began to realize that there is way more to war than just fighting for his country. Because it contains evidence of dehumanization and disconnectedness with the world, Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front reveals soldiers who are blindsided by the effects war has on them.
Throughout the novel, Paul, the main character faces many adversities that cause him to become less human. There are many instances where Paul and his fellow soldiers

go without food, drink, or sleep. These men are constantly living in fear for their lives and are not receiving the medical attention they need to survive. They also face the difficulty of dealing with the loss of close friends. Paul has to be able to cope with the loss of friends while still staying strong for the war. These instances put a huge burden on the hearts and minds of these soldiers. The war has dehumanized them so much that the soldiers do not even know how to show sorrow for their fallen friends. Instead, they try to figure out who will be the lucky one to get the fallen one’s boots. Being in war teaches the soldiers that they need to kill in order to protect themselves. These soldiers loose sight of human dignity and do not think twice about killing these men until after the deed is already completed. In the novel, Paul is encountered with a French soldier who he must kill to protect himself,
“He proceeds to enact that scenario successfully, but he then faces a dying French soldier, who he tries to succor- without success. The young soldier dies. Baumer swears that. . .he will return to tell all about the sheer madness of war. This resolution fades when he returns to his own side later” (Schlieper).
War taught Paul to kill, not worrying about the other person’s life. This mindset completely corrupted Paul and dehumanized him. He, after killing the French soldier, lost sight of what life truly means. Paul being in war tore him away from what his life used to be. He has completely lost the value of life and what it means to live, “And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do. The tender, secret influence that passed from them into us could not rise again. . .” (Remarque 97). Througout out the novel, Paul is naive to being dehumanized. He does not even realize that he is slowly being stripped of his human dignity. All the things he stood for are being ripped away from him and he does not even realize it until later on in the novel when he returns home,
“I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is of course that I have changed in the interval. There lies a gulf between that time and to-day. At that time I still knew nothing about the war, we had only been in quiet sectors. But now that I have been crushed without knowing it. I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world” (Remarque 123).
As a result of Paul becoming dehumanized, the adversities he faces causes him to also become disconnected from the world.

In the novel, the men have this sense of alienation that completely takes over them. They feel as though after the war, their life has become meaningless and unimportant, “A sense of alienation becomes overwhelming . . . The young soldiers feel cut off from their now- meaningless prewar existence, unable to visualize a future after the war . . .” (Armitage). Paul finds it difficult to imagine a life without war and to remember how he felt before the war. He feels uncomfortable wearing the attire any other normal man would wear on a daily basis. He feels as though he cannot live a normal life with a suit on, “I feel awkward. The suit is rather tight and short; I have grown in the army. Collar and tie give me some trouble” (Remarque 149.) Paul finds it difficult to speak with his family now since he has returned from war, “These requests all lead to Baumer’s alienation from life at home. . .As the war’s madness increases, home fades into alienation for Baumer” (Schileper). “Some men may even begin to doubt the purpose of their mission, question the reason they are fighting and distrust the justifications of their leaders . . .the more cold- blooded they become in their own thoughts and actions”

(Firda).