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Paul Bauumer's Journey

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All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is based on a group of young soldiers; Paul, Kat, Kropp, Tjaden, Detering and Muller who experience the horrific battlefield of World War I fighting for the German army. These main soldier of this journey is Paul Bäumer who is the hero of this novel. Paul was influenced by his schoolteacher Kantorek to join the army and becomes a seasoned war veteran throughout the novel. Before the war these young men did not know the terrors of war and what they were up against. One would think that these soldiers would rely on the love and warmth of their families to make it through the war but none of that matters on the western front. As the war progresses Pauls unit Troop 9 who previously consisted …show more content…

No longer do these men feel such great urge for love and warmth. Especially, Paul Baumer, who can’t even enjoy a rare occasion of intimacy with the french woman in war because he is so use to the awful lifestyle. Paul says, “We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers – we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals”. Even when he is gifted with a seventeen day leave he returns to his hometown thus being able to once again be with his family but it is not the same. As he returns he is notified that his mother is sick with cancer and he soon realizes he has lost the feelings he once had towards life before he went off to war. Paul enjoys being by his lonely as no one truly understands the gruesome act of war as they underestimate its dreadful scenery. His father wishes that he wears his uniform around town to be a respected war hero however, Paul neglects this request. He is no longer worried of how his “home” views him as he now wishes to return to the front. Yet before his return he visits Kemmerich's mother, one of his fellow comrades mother to talk about her son’s death as he wishes to give her a sense of relief. Then once again Paul is back at the front with his fellow soldiers ready for action. Once he returns he is notified that his former teacher who influenced him as well as his fellow class to enroll in the war has been …show more content…

We see a change in Paul’s life as now an experienced trooper he even feels remorse for the captured Russian prisoners as he knows the feeling of turning into a more beastly human just trying to survive. Unlike other soldiers who abuse the prisoners Paul grants them with cigars and cake showing how he has now changed from his first time experiencing the front. However, as the story continues Paul is once again sent to action and this time he kills for the first time, a French troop named Gerard Duval. It hurts Paul as he realizes he is killing fellow human beings who are not much different than him. Kroop says, “we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now who's in the right?". They are all just fighting for their home country so who is to say who is

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He also founds out from his friends that they are going to get inspected by the Kaiser before they go to Russia. Paul finds out that the Kaiser isn’t what he thought he would be, and is disappointed. Feeling like he needs to catch up with his friends and the war, he volunteers to help find and gather information about the enemy. However, when trying to go back, an attack started to happen, and he decided to hide

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War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

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1425 Words | 6 Pages

Paul is happy to be home but is frustrated by all of the questions. He is on leave and would prefer to not talk about the pain and suffering of the war. Paul is struggling with feeling at home as he has spent so much time away, and has already had close friends die and seen horrific things, why would he want to relive that? Especially because it is his mother, he doesn't want to explain the awful parts of the war. He then decides to lie to her.

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[…] Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert." (Chapter 9) In this quote Paul realizes how wrong he has been this whole time, he says if they were not in the war, both men could have possibly been close friends for all they

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Nina Irwin is a Kansas City artist, globally known for her watercolor landscapes and ceramic pieces. She has had many shows across the country, and several overseas as well. Originally hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Irwin’s family moved to Kansas City when she was six. As the child of two successful artists, she was surrounded by art throughout her childhood, but did not pursue it as a career until her mid-twenties. She attended college for a variety of disciplines, including archeology, anthropology, and English, and had many interests, though none truly appealed to her as a degree.

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Throughout the story Paul shows that he cares about his comrades by protecting them from the dangers of war, and he also displays that he will guide them in war. Paul uses his skills of intelligence to guide his team in the trenches and at the front, and he passes on his knowledge and tricks of war to the new recruits. Not many soldiers have all of these qualities, which makes Paul stand out more than his comrades. Even today some men don't express the passion and leadership Paul shows in All Quiet on the Western Front, which brings up the fact that the war needs more men like Paul. To sum up, Paul is an honest and true man who will always be there for his comrades when needed, and he is a man the troops are proud to say is a patriotic

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Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.

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The movie Grand Illusion was very different from the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The stories and settings were completely different, and had very little to do with each other. But even though the film and the book are completely different, they both give the same idea of the war being a horrible place, the movie had just approached the topic very mildly (in comparison to the book). The movie had avoided war on the battlefield, along with harsh conditions, and focused in a prison, instead. The novel however felt like a heavier topic, more emotional.

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1091 Words | 5 Pages

Moreover, commonly, soldiers are exhilarated to finally go home after long periods of time at the front, and the men dread when they have to return to battle. However, in Paul’s case, he desires to return to the front, rather than staying in his home town and seeing his mother in pain, he yearns to feel numb again. Therefore, Paul is in “agony” because before going on leave, he was hopeless and had no will to live, thus making him a better soldier. Although, after visiting his mother and sister, he has rediscovered a reason to survive, making it harder to go back. Moreover, the word, “comfortless,” illustrates how Paul feels isolated even at home, he feels little comfort where he grew up.

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Conflict is what drives all stories, but stories with similar themes may use them differently in order to give different lessons and persuade you to form different opinions. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque and The Redemption of Althalus by David & Leigh Eddings have the similar themes of war, morals, and family, but display them in very different contexts to create unique conflict between their characters. Although war is a large theme in both books, the characters face different types of conflicts in war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul describes the realistic, bleak parts as a soldier in a real war; he has to face the death of friends, starvation, illness, enemy troops, and the ultimate destruction of his innocence and humanity in the span of only about 3 years.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

Paul’s reunion with his mother permits him to recognize the impacts war has had on his mind and life. In the seventh chapter, Paul receives 17 days of leave. During this time, he visits his mother as she suffers in ominous distress. After Paul witnesses his mother deteriorating, he aspires to “weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child” (Remarque 183). Paul feels little, if any, content with his life as a consequence of experiencing a plentiful

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748 Words | 3 Pages

The First World War was a lengthy and brutal affair that claimed the lives of over 17 million individuals. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, its effects were equally as ferocious on the intellectual front, where it marked a turning point in the clash of European intellectual values. Philosophers such as Nietzsche had already challenged established institutions of Positivistic thinking toward knowledge and progress; however, his movement lacked widespread support. It was the disaster of WWI that accelerated their movement by inspiring culture-wide undermining of prior intellectual beliefs through newfound uncertainty: authors such as Erich Remarque and Vera Brittain drew upon sudden doubt underscored by the war to completely reverse prior thinking by breaking down pre-war notions of intellectual

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930 Words | 4 Pages

In order to emphasize the degree to which the soldiers in World War I changed emotionally, Paul juxtaposes the innocence of his youth with a primal instinct of desperate survival that forms from the brutality of the war. As time passes, each of the soldiers slowly loses his sense of self, specifically seen when Bäumer and Kropp, a fellow soldier, cannot seem to recognize themselves in a regular life in the future after the war. Kropp then interprets this as a loss of preparedness because of war. Paul seems to agree as he reminisces, “We were eighteen

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799 Words | 4 Pages

"Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and uniforms you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert (Remarque 223)". Comradeship among soldiers is a major theme throughout the novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front" because the soldiers knew each other before the war, protected each other during combat, and can relate to one another without having to literally speak. This story 's theme shows comradeship because Paul and the other soldiers were in class together before joining the war. In the beginning of the novel Paul introduces his friends he went to school with before going to war with. "

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841 Words | 4 Pages

This demonstrates how much these soldiers depend and need one another. In the novel it says, “Our only comfort is the steady breathing of our comrades asleep, and thus we wait for the morning” (Remarque 275). I imagine being in a dangerous environment such as an ongoing war it would be difficult to find comfort. However, Paul knowing his comrades are alive and getting some rest brings him comfort.

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