Paul's Loss Of Innocence Essay

Paul Baumer and his friends’ lives were changed dramatically by World War I. Paul and his friends lost their innocence through the course of this book. In Enrich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel he describes the realities of the war. In the beginning of the book, Paul tells how their schoolmaster Kantorek gave them long lectures about joining the war. He would often ask them “Won’t you join up Comrades?”(10)
One of Paul’s many instances of his transformation is when he realizes how important food was in the war. In chapter 6, there was a rumor of an offensive attack and the soldiers waited for better or worse. They were given rations or cheese and rum but they had to battle with the aggressive rats to keep their food. Days after their food couldn’t

It is difficult for Paul to cope with the things he saw in the war and his old life. The screeching of the trams scares Paul because to him it sounds like shells. Paul tried to recapture his childhood by looking at the books he once loved. As he look through the books he says that images float through his mind, but they do not grip him, they are mere shadows and memories.(172) Paul can’t find his way back to his childhood and he says “I am a soldier, I must cling to that”. (173) Paul goes to see Kemmerich’s mother and tells him that he died instantly which was a lie. Kemmerich’s mother tells him to swear on it and he still sticks with his lie because he pities her. Paul gets to a point where he have seen so many people die that it isn’t a big deal to him to worry about one single person. When it’s time for Paul to get off leave him and his mother have a conversation and he tells her “Ah! Mother! Mother! You still think I am child – why can I not put my head in your lap and weep? (183) Paul wishes he didn’t go on leave because it only brought pain on himself. He also wishes he could cry on his mother lap and die with her. He can’t distance himself emotionally and mentally from the