Paul Baumer's All Quiet On The Western Front

The narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer, loses his humanity in and through World War I. Baumer goes from a piteous young man to a stalwart soldier. The German veteran becomes incapable of expressing his feelings about the war. Baumer can no longer think of a future without war. He no longer fears death and treats it like it is nothing. Baumer’s experiences during the war are so harrowing that he cannot describe what he has experienced with other people. In chapter 7, corporal Himmelstoss gives Baumer seventeen days of leave. He decides to go visit one of the women he previously met on the other side of the canal but, finds out she has no interest of his leave. Baumer goes home to find his sister and the house reeking

Before accepting his role as a soldier in war, he is a student for Kantorek who persuades Baumer and the rest of the second company to enlist in the army. As a student, Baumer writes beautiful poetry for himself. Now, as an empty and contemptuous soldier, he has not time nor interest for poetry. All Baumer conceptualizes about is the future and what it holds. For Baumer, the future is a dreadful world where war is invariably present. But, he ceases to believe that the same is for the older men. He expects the older men to forget the war like it was nothing. “For the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. They are able to think beyond it. We, however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a wasteland.”(Pg.20). His conception of the future, whether it is true or false, is very pessimistic. He has little-to-no hope for peace and stability in the world. Before World War I, Baumer thinks of a peaceful world with no negatives that he knows of now because of the war. The war takes over his mind and is now in control of Baumer’s thoughts. Now that Baumer experiences war, it is all he can think of; the horror of killing innocent people, the devastation he feels to see one of his fellow soldiers dead on the battlefield. All these thoughts contribute to Baumer’s pessimistic point of view which he shares with his friends in the second

After witnessing all of his companions in the second company face death he realizes that it is just a fact of life. Baumer does not realize it is just a fact of life when he is slowly watching Kemmerich being tortured by a slow and painful death. “I sit tensely and watch his every movement in case he may perhaps say something.”(Pg.31). Kemmerich knows his leg is gone and he is aware of the fact that he is very close to immediate death. Kemmerich is very disappointed because he knows now that he will never become a head forester which was one of his goals in war. Baumer repeatedly tries to cheer him up, talking about the advance in technology of artificial limbs and talks about a positive future but, Kemmerich ignores him and refuses to respond in conversation. Even though it is obvious that his tactics are not working, Baumer consistently talks to him, trying to make him avoid the high rate of death. To Baumer, this is not just the passing of another human being, this is the death of one of his closest friends, the fact that these words could be the last Baumer says to Kemmerich and these could be the last words Kemmerich hears. “Suddenly Kemmerich groans and begins to gurgle. I jump up, stumble outside and demand: “Where is the doctor? Where is the doctor?”(Pg. 31). As Kemmerich gets closer and closer to his death, Baumer tries harder and harder to prevent it. Unfortunately, Baumer’s efforts are