In the story All Quiet On The Western Front there is comradeship. Comradeship can only be there through hard times, wartime. War creates comradeship simply because it destroys. It annihilates lives but it annihilates the spirits of other soldiers as well. Comradeship represents human social conscience when times are tough - after all, it's better to be together than alone. Like Paul Baümer’s experience with the importance of comradeship. Upon entering the war, Paul finds that comradeship is the most important aspect of his life.
In war there is change of perspective. What was once taken as accomplishment is dismissed. What was once considered disgusting is commended. This shift in behavior is explained when Paul comes to understands "latrine-rumor":
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“I well remembered how embarrassed we were as recruits...Since then we have learned better than to be shy about such trifling immodesties. In time things far worse than that came easy to us. Here in the open air though, the business is entirely a pleasure. I no longer understand why we should always have shied at these things before. They are, in fact, just as natural as eating and drinking.” (5) The loss of embarrassment over humility is the starting point of comradeship.
It is the beginning of oppressing self-awareness and promoting unity. In All Quiet on the Western Front it is talked about in different ways. The common resentment towards the older generation of soldiers that helped to strengthen their comradeship. Paul expresses, "We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness." (8) That sentiment of betrayal only bounds them more together. They realized that they can only trust themselves and this creates the reliance on one another that comradeship calls for. It becomes part of their being through the drill, the battle, and the war. They become comrades through their common …show more content…
cause. It all becomes the process of their comradeship which helps them to adjust and survive throughout the war - "Kropp divides a cigarette and hands me half.
Tjaden gives an account of his...broad-beans and bacon...Kat appears...he has two loaves of bread under his arm and a bloodstained sandbag full of horse-flesh in his hand."(27) This is when they aid each other, which becomes a great importance in every soldier's life and Paul understands its significance more and more throughout the war. He understands that without the character of individuality, they are comrades - they are one in the same.
Comradeship is the ability to understand. Paul comforts this new recruit and understands his suffering. In a similar situation, Paul and his company comes to the help the other recruits who seemed to be on the brink of insanity during bombardment:
“One of the recruits has a fit. I have been watching him for a long time, grinding his teeth and opening and shutting his fists. These hunted, protruding eyes, we know them too well...Though he raves and his eyes roll, it can't be helped, we have to give him a hiding to bring him to his senses. We do it quickly and mercilessly, and at last he sits down quietly.” (73)
Without his comrades, Paul would not have felt the need to keep on fighting. This is seen when Paul hears the voice of his comrades when he has lost his
nerve: “At once a new warmth flows through me. These voices, these quiet words, these footsteps in the trench behind me recall me at a bound from the terrible loneliness and fear of death by which I had been almost destroyed. They are more to me than life, these voices, they are more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades.” (137) He finds the voice of his fellow soldiers reassuring. This motivates him to keep on fighting. This is the beauty that is seen in comradeship. I think for Paul comradeship is the most important thing that can encourages and keeps him alive during the war. Paul came to know comradeship as the most important part of his existence. Upon entering the war, Paul lost his selfishness and gained love for his comrades.
“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 imposes on soldiers, and at the conclusion of the book the empty shell resembling Paul stands testament to this. Not only does Paul lose himself throughout the course of the war, but he loses each of his 20 classmates who volunteered with him, further emphasizing the terrible consequences of warfare. The heavy psychological demands of life in the trenches and the harsh reality of war strip Paul of his humanity and leave him with a body devoid of all sentiment and feeling.
... While the corpse represents each of these concepts, in the end it is Paul’s faith – his own luck – that saves his life once again. What, upon first glance, appears to be a hectic and confused account of a destructive shelling becomes a wonderfully connected verse of one soldier’s struggle to preserve himself against all odds. What more can be said about Paul?
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times go by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings, especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital. Training camp was the first actuality of what war was going to be like for the men. They thought that it would be fun, and they could take pride in defending their country. Their teacher, Kantorek, told them that they should all enroll in the war. Because of this, almost all of the men in the class enrolled. It was in training camp that they met their cruel corporal, Himelstoss.&nbs most by him. They have to lie down in the mud and practice shooting and jumping up. Also, these three men must remake Himelstoss’ bed fourteen times, until it is perfect. Himelstoss puts the young men through so much horror that they yearn for their revenge. Himelstoss is humiliated when he goes to tell on Tjaden, and Tjaden only receives an easy punishment. Training camp is as death and destruction. Training camp is just a glimpse of what war really is. The men do not gain full knowledge of war until they go to the front line. The front line is the most brutal part of the war. The front line is the place in which the battles are fought. Battles can only be described in one word- chaos. Men are running around trying to protect themselves while shooting is in the trench with an unknown man from the other side. This battle begins with shells bursting as they hit the ground and machine guns that rattle as they are being fired. In order to ensure his survival, Paul must kill the other man. First, Paul stabs the man, but he struggles for his life. He dies shortly after, and Paul discovers who he has killed. The man is Gerald Duval, a printer.&n Having to deal with killing others is one of the horrors of war. The men who are killed and the people who kill them could have been friends, if only they were on the same side. The other important battle leaves both Paul and Kropp with injuries.
... his friends but also, on a deeper level, for other soldiers. When Paul becomes stuck in a hole, while a bombardment was on going, an enemy soldier falls on to him. Paul reacts as any hardened soldier would, with his knife. But while trapped in the hole, he has time to ruminate over his actions. Paul becomes sympathetic towards his enemy and attempts to soothe the man of his pain. He continually states to the man “I am trying to help, Comrade, comrade, comrade” because that is what they have become. While trapped Paul understands the similarities between him and the now deceased enemy. His empathy turns into genuine sympathy for the man’s plight but also for all soldiers, as he leaves the hole “I promise you, comrade. It shall never happen again” (Remarque, 226).
The Comradeship of War in All Quiet on the Western Front 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, 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.
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 feel the same emotions. Paul's beliefs were changed by the lies that were told to him.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that greatly helps in the understanding the effects war. The novel best shows the attitudes of the soldiers before the war and during the war. Before the war there are high morals and growing nationalist feelings. During the war however, the soldiers discover the trauma of war. They discover that it is a waste of time and their hopes and dreams of their life fly further and further away. The remains of Paul Baumer's company had moved behind the German front les for a short rest at the beginning of the novel. After Baumer became Paul's first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly, particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to join the military. " While they taut that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already that death-throes are stronger.... And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone, and alone we must see it through."(P. 13) Paul felt completely betrayed. " We will make ourselves comfortable and sleep, and eat as much as we can stuff into our bellies, and drink and smoke so that hours are not wasted. Life is short." (P 139) Views of death and becoming more comfortable with their destiny in the r became more apparent throughout the novel. Paul loses faith in the war in each passing day. * Through out the novel it was evident that the war scarred the soldiers permanently mentally. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started.
While Paul and his comrades fight on the front lines, Paul narrates, “We have become wild beasts...It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down.” (Remarque 113). “Beasts” are known to rely and live by survival, and the connotation of the word “beast” implies a sense of savagery and barbarity. This prioritization of pure survival for Paul, simply being a “beast”, then neglects other humanizing proponents. These proponents include emotions of shame and guilt because of the deaths of these enemy soldiers. This neglect follows up with, “what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down.” The personification of death in this quote paints it as a physical threat within that moment. During the previous portion of the quote, “what do we know of men” is truly where the disconnect between the soldiers’ sense of humanity and their need to survive occurs as a juxtaposition between the enemy soldiers and death itself. One is viewed as frivolous and insignificant, “men” are human-beings that one can feel an emotional connection towards. However, “death” is a dire threat within that moment. They must view these individuals as nothing but obstacles and enemies to be overcome. The shame and guilt of taking
They all particularly are frustrated with Kantorek because of the unneeded pressure he put on Paul and all of his friends to fulfill their “patriotic duties” by serving in the war. However, none of them dislike Kantorek. Also, Paul explains how the war has ruined his life and that his perception of enlisting in the army was far from what he thought. In chapter seven Paul says “...it is a damnable business, but what has it to do with us now--we live.” In these lines he is simply stating that a soldier disconnects himself from his own emotions in order to survive the horrors and terrors of war. Paul also shares deep thoughts about how a soldier transforms as they are heading into battle. He states this in chapter four when he says “We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers--we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.”
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.
War destroys Paul and his friends. Those who physically survive the bombing, the bullets and bayonets are annihilated by physical attacks on their sanity.
People who have actually been through war know how horrible it is. Society on the other hand, while it believes it knows the horrors of war, can never understand or sympathize with a soldier’s situation. The only people who can understand war is those who have been through it so they can often feel alone if they are out of the military. Paul cannot even give a straight answer to his own father about his dad’s inquiries about war. Paul’s dad does not understand that people who have been in the war can in no way truly express the horrible things that that have seen and experienced. Nor can Paul fit in with the society who does not understand him. Paul and so many others were brought into the war so young that they know of nothing else other than war. Paul held these views on society as he said, “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;-the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall in to ruin.
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.
Paul believed the older generation "...ought to be mediators and guides to the world... to the future. / The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in [their] minds with greater insight and a more humane wisdom." Paul, his classmates, and a majority of their vulnerable generation completely trusted their role models and because of that trust were influenced and pressured into joining the war. They believed the older generation understood the truth behind war and would never send them to a dangerous or inhumane situation, "...but the first death [they] saw shattered this belief." The death caused the soldiers to realize that the experiences of their generation were more in line with reality than those of the older generation and that created a gap between the two. "While [the older generation] continued to write and talk, [Paul's generation] saw the wounded and dying. / While [the older generation] taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, [Paul's] already knew that death-throes are stronger."