Paul Baumer's All Quiet On The Western Front

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World War I started off with the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, but it became far more explosive than anyone would have ever anticipated. War has a huge effect on people, the soldiers, the civilians back at home, and other unnamed heroes- the nurses. This is displayed in wounded when the narrator states, “she would try to be cheery both for the sake of the wounded men and for herself” (Patterson). War is an ongoing repeating pattern filled with angst, grief, suspicion, and tragedy and so many people get stuck in that miserable pattern, which can drive anyone mad. In the novel set in World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, the main character, Paul Baumer, shows the reality about the peculiar brutalities of World …show more content…
After a hard day at the front, Paul says, “we are now in low spirits after we have been in the dugouts for two hours our own shells begin to all in the trench” (100). This relates to the fact that they are blindly shooting at the “enemy,” not even thinking about the men and their families and how they are just as scared as the German soldiers are. It can become so extreme, that Paul and his comrades do not know who to shoot at anymore and realized how pointless it is to shoot at this with “point of no return” type mentality- like an emotionless machine.For a long time, during the winter months, the men were facing a rat problem and Paul stated, “we have a spell from the rats in the trench. They are in No Man’s Land- we know what for… All day we have only normal shelling, so that we are able to repair the trenches” (128). On top of having to defend for their lives; there are the complications such as trench foot, terrible living conditions with very little food, and now the rats are in the soldier’s territory. The fact that there such a thing as “normal shelling” shows that the soldiers have become somewhat immune to the bombs and the destruction. This is understandable because that is the only way they can survive. These people are forced to go beyond their comfort zone and at times to disregard their morals and their beliefs- yet …show more content…
They did not realize how much they had to push themselves through different training routines, by rationing their food, and as well as fighting for their lives every single day. President Hoover once said, “older men declare war. But it is the youth who must fight and die” (Hoover). This ties together with the anti-war message that this novel has to offer. Paul came home goes into war without any choice really, risking his life while the people who declared the war are just watching. He came back as a different person and once he lost his best friend, Kat, he was all alone. He couldn’t take the tragedy anymore. All he wanted was bliss and that is what he got in the end. War is unpredictable, but throughout all of that pain and misery Paul discovered a deeper, more emotional and spiritual comrade which helped him stay strong. Unfortunately, all that was good in his life was taken away when his comrades died and that was the only thing that was giving him the strength to live another
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