All Quiet On The Western Front Character Analysis Essay

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In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul is a twenty year old boy who joined the war for pride and glory. He did not know, however, that was was a horrible thing. Paul witnessed things that no one should witness. He witnessed death, suffering, and combat. The war turned him into a man and he lost his innocence. He was no longer the boy he was when he first joined the war. Paul changed, and not necessarily for the better. Throughout the war, Paul is completely stripped away of his humanity because of the traumatic experiences he faced that psychologically affected him. In the beginning of the novel, when Paul first joined the war, he was a very innocent compassionate and caring person. Paul thought …show more content…
He is completely stripped away of all the vestiges of his old self. One thing that has changed in Paul is that he is now not afraid of killing anybody. He is now only trying to survive the war, no matter what it takes. “We crouch behind every corner, behind every barrier of barbed wire, and hurl heaps of explosives at the feet of the advancing enemy before we run.” Paul throws grenades at his enemies and blows them up without any hesitation. He kills to survive and believes in kill or be killed. “If your own father came over with them they would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him.” Paul also says that not only will he kill anyone who gets in his way, he will kill his loved ones if necessary, without hesitation. Paul is turning into a monster and losing all remnants of his old self. “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…” Paul admits that everything he once knew is gone because of the war. He now knows nothing but the death and suffering that comes with war. All the traumatic experiences have finally gotten to
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