Paul Baumer's All Quiet On The Western Front

Over the course of WWI, worldwide, there were 41 million casualties; 18 million deaths and 32 million wounded. All Quiet On The Western Front portrays the lives soldiers lived on the bases and their experiences on the front lines. Many of the young men walked into war innocently, unknowing of the gruesome and savage experiences they would have to face and witness. Paul Baumer was one of those men excited to enlist until he found himself shattered in the heart wrenching situations of WWI. Approaching WWI, the men were highly encouraged to enlist; even though they were uneducated about how brutal war was, and although some men were not exactly cut out for it. (11)”There was indeed, one of us who hesitated and did not want to fall into line.

The men have an epiphany about how they have their whole lives ahead of them. Many of the men have families of their own, and have much to loose, but since they were young, all they had to lose were their parents and possibly a girlfriend back home.(20) “Kantorek would say that we stood on the threshold of life.” They realized that if they died, they would be throwing their entire lives away. They had nothing to live or die for. War soon becomes consuming their lives. The men are beginning to get used to war and it shows when they are under attack and have new recruits with them. In a way, this shows how the men were when they first arrived, versus at this point in the war. (53) “It is not fear. Men who have been up as often as we become thick skinned. Only young recruits are agitated.” The men start to become desensitized to killing, and start to become savages; retreating from all of their morality and learned behaviors. One time they went goose hunting. (92) “Like a madman I bash their heads against a wall and stun them.” Eventually, Paul goes on leave. Everything seems perfectly fine on the front lines, but he would not notice how effected he was until he went home. (157)“I lean against the wall and grip my helmet and rifle. I hold them as tight as I can, but I cannot take another step, the staircase fades before my eyes, I support myself with the butt of my rifle against my feet and clench my teeth fiercely, but I cannot speak a

On the front, he is forced to jump into a shell hole and lay faced down in order to survive. While pretending he is dead, a Frenchmen jumps on top of him. (216) “ I do not think at all, I make no decision- I strike madly at home, and feel only how the body suddenly convulses, then becomes limp and collapses. When I recover myself, my hand is sticky and wet.” Later, he gets wounded and is forced to go to “the chopping block”, which is what they called the infirmary because a lot of times people got limbs amputated there. He goes in saying whatever happens, he doesn’t want chloroform, which was used as an anesthetic in WWI. The doctor starts poking around in the wound. (243) “The pain is insufferable. Two orderlies hold my arms fast, but I break loose with one of them and try to crash into the surgeon’s spectacles just as he notices and springs back.” Soon, he is out of the infirmary and talking to Berger where he exclaims that his friend has died. (279-280) “Muller is dead. Someone shot him point blank in the stomach with a Verey light. He lived for half an hour, quite conscious, and in terrible pain… We have been able to bury Muller, but he is not likely to remain long undisturbed.” Again, another one of his friends die. (283-284) “Bertinick is lying in the hole with us. When he sees we cannot hit them because under the sharp fire we have to think too much about keeping cover, he takes a rife, crawls out of the hole, and lying down propped