All Quiet On The Western Front: Chapter Analysis

In chapter 9 Paul has ruptured to the front, and finds Kat, Müller, Tjaden, and Kropp are still alive and are ok. Paul and his friends think that if thirty people would have said “no” the war wouldn’t have happened and they would have been there. Paul also volunteers to go into No Man’s Land to gather info about the enemy. Paul gets lost on his way back and finds shelter in a shell hole, after a while a soldier go into the same hole and Paul is forced to kill him. It was to bright outside for Paul to make his way back to camp so is has to stay there until night with the dead body.

we meet our four main characters, Paul Baumer, Stanislaus Katczinsky Muller, and Tjaden. In this book we see how these men are devastated by Germany's infantry, as it rips apart their humanity, leaving them as empty shells deprived of their souls. As we continue to see how long they continue to progress as individuals, we see them devastated by all-out war. Chapter two introduces us to Corporal Himmelstoss, the power-hungry man put in charge of training the soldiers, who treats them with inhumane cruelty and complete disrespect. As they are able to escape his evil tyranny, they are confronted with the death of their friend Franz Kemmerich, who dies at the end of chapter two, leaves them with the only concern of who will get his boots.

Protagonist (Max and Freak) : Maxwell Kane (Max) and Kevin Avery (Freak) are the two main protagonists in this novel. Maxwell Kane is a tall twelve year old boy who has a learning disability in school. He often gets bullied about his dad who had choked his mother to death and went to prison. He lives with his grandparents Grim and Gram who often takes very nice care of him.

1- Technological advances in machine guns and tanks allowed for greater accuracy and larger explosion range caused faster deaths. 2- The soldiers were traumatized and couldn't work well when they went back to their environment. Pg 828 #1-2 1- Paul realized the soldier was still alive after their altercation.

Tintin falls asleep for a short amount of time and wakes up to find the lifeboat on fire and Haddock drunk. When Tintin tries to extinguish the fire, Haddock gets angry and pushes Tintin, capsizing the boat. Suddenly, a seaplane attacks them with machine guns. Tintin takes a shot at the plane with a handgun which miraculously stops the engine and the pilots are forced to land on the water. As the pilots are fixing the plane Tintin and Haddock sneak up on them, hijack the plane after it is fixed, tie them up, and set course for Spain.

In chapter two of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Remarque, Paul realizes the threat and destruction of war towards the young soldiers. Paul thought about his dreams prior to fighting in the war and realizes that his dreams were destroyed even before he had a chance to follow them. He also recalls his first experiences of army life as a young recruit, where him and his classmates Kropp, Muller and Kemmerich trained under the command of Corporal Himmelstoss. They were forced to do humiliating chorse and endure harsh punishments daily. Even though the soldiers hated Coroporal Himmelstoss, they believed that he trained them to be pitiless and tough which were essential qualities to survive in the trenches.

Similarly, when Paul says, “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves.” (87), he is saying that not only was their youth and innocence compromised when they entered the war, but also the drive and motivation to be adventurous also has fled.

Kemmerich’s was one of Paul’s close friends to die first, and it is here we can see how loss is portrayed during this scene. The loss of Kemmerich life was not quick or painless, Paul’s friend suffered throughout this time, and Paul was their watched his friend die. Paul faced the truth about war after his friend’s death. The truth that Paul had discovered is that the loss of life is something that he, and all of his friends might not be able to escape. I believe that Paul gave up on living after the death of Kat, that was his last friend that was still alive and he was very close to him.

Once the soldiers reach the front, they understand that only they will ever know the consequences of warfare; just they witness the terrors of war. After the Kaiser ends his inspection of the troops in the uniforms they have received for his visit, the men “have to return almost all the new things and take back our old rags again” (207). The shiny new uniforms are just a display for the

The author wrote, “Terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;- but it kills, if a man thinks about it” (Remarque 138). The horrific time that the soldiers underwent resulted in their emotions being shut off and ignored for the sake of their mental and physical survival. As the soldiers flipped the switch that controlled their emotions, they separated war and peace, so much so that they could not comprehend their life without war. Paul’s friend Albert said, “There won’t be any peacetime” (Remarque 76), this mindset occurred because of the daunting and gruesome occurrences in war. Furthermore, Paul mentioned memories of his home life and said, “…they belong to another world that is gone from us” (Remarque 121), showing again how a soldiers live emotionally disconnected from their home life, leaving them unprepared for life after war.

It helps us readers realize that soldiers are human beings that suffered from PTSD way before there was ever a term for this mental disease. The feeling of belonging because of the strong bond between comrades and the feeling of not belonging or fitting in society because of what they’ve been through. The many struggles Paul went through in his head shows how much our human mind can endure and adapt to any environment no matter how bad the circumstances. It also shows both sides of the battlefield, there is no right or wrong it’s just men who want to survive, driven by the thoughts and memories of home or what once was. The cost of war is too high of a price to pay for all the pain and suffering soldiers, their families and the civilians have to endure.

War has promptly developed the minds and characters of the young recruits in such a short time and so deeply, a transformation that their schoolteachers had never achieved. Paul believes that they know more now than their teachers because the war has schooled them about life. Kantorek, their schoolteacher, wrote that they were "the Iron Youth" and Paul thinks, “Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young?

Paul notices the dramatic transformation that he has endured and struggles to see his home as a “foreign world;” his connection with family and friends at home is “crushed” entirely. His inability to connect with people at home shows the loss of connection with society as a whole. Prior to the war, Paul himself was a civilian and connected well with society. Now that Paul has been submerged in life on the battlefield, he has lost touch with his old self, leaving his identity a shell of his old self. After his visit to home, he finds himself more excited to return to the front due to the exhaustion he faced at home.

They had been damaged mentally and they cannot become their old selves. At the start of the book, Paul reflects on the line, "We are none of us older than twenty years old. " The tone of this line reflects the soldiers at the start of the book. They have completely changed after dealing with the horrors of the war. What humans are trained to do daily, is not as bad as what the soldiers were taught.

In addition, Paul was injured in the book and goes home and stays with her family while he recovers. He is no longer able to relate to his family, since it is very difficult to think and have emotions and at the same time with much death all around him in the war. There is much talk of how he and his friends do not think about deep things, but just think about eating and silly things. His father and people over all his people want me to tell them stories of war and hate Paul because their experiences are horrible. Paul has just returned to the fight and basically everyone in the book is wounded and dies.