Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

Words: 945
Pages: 4

War is something that is looked up upon greatly, it is a risk people are willing to take simply for the gratifying glory of victory. Fellow soldiers that come back home are later praised with celebrations and gratitude. Once Paul Baumer takes his leave and returns to his hometown for a visit with mother and father. Paul returns to emotionally connect with his sick mother and his brutishly harsh father. In the novel, we learn that no matter how much you can try, once you are involved in warfare it will change a person. Paul Baumer was a simple man who had a taking for becoming a veteran, yet he is extremely profound in his own thoughts. We learn how Paul’s outlook on the world has changed due to his endeavors through gore, blood, and justice, all the stories told about tragedies of war, are true. War, looked up in a dictionary, is a state of armed conflict between different …show more content…
“They are quiet in this way, because quietness is so unattainable for us now. At the front there is no quietness and the curse of the front reaches so far that we never pass beyond it. Even in the remote depots and rest-areas the droning and the muffled noise of shelling is always in our ears. We are never so far off that it is no more to be heard.” {Remarque 120-121} This statement is rather contradicting due to the very setting this whole book takes place in, the middle of roaring machines and booming weapons. Along with most of Paul’s vivid thoughts, do we experience the emotional and physical torture that goes on in the midst of the battlefield? The answer would be yes, hearing all of Paul’s screaming thoughts and thunderous guns it is certain this is no “quiet” western front. Now even though we will assume along with Paul’s end to his career his family will grief his inevitable death, we can safely name the book “All Quiet on the Western