Character Analysis Paper World War I was a brutal and murderous fight. Over 38 million people suffered casualties. There were 17 million deaths and around 20 million soldiers were wounded during the war. Soldiers showed courage by fighting and learned how important it is to trust other men. They faced hard conditions and suffered many injuries. In the novel, All Quiet on The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque portrays the main character, Paul Baümer, as a superior comrade, a smart decision-maker, and a brave soldier. Paul Baümer would not be able to survive the war without his friends and his friends would not be able to survive it without him. This shows that Paul is a good comrade. A great example that shows Paul helping a fellow …show more content…
When one of Paul’s best friends Kemmerich dies, Paul is the one who has to tell his mom about the bad news. One quote that points to this is, “I must go and see Kemmerich’s mother… This quaking, sobbing woman who shakes me and cries out on me: ‘Why are you living then, when he is dead?’” (181). Paul had enough bravery to talk to his dead friend’s mother about how her son died. Paul has to lie to Kemmerich’s mother or else she would have been even more upset than she had been when she heard the bad news. Paul is devastated when his friend died but stays brave because he knew with war comes death. An example that also proves this is, “Kat falls. We two are alone… Couldn’t I shoot myself quickly in the foot so as to be able to go with him… ‘he is stone dead’ … Do I walk? Have I feet still? … Then I know nothing more” (287-291). Paul is even more affected by Kat’s death than Kemmerich’s death. Kat and Paul were best friends and stayed together throughout the war. Paul did not know what to do when Kat died, he is at a loss of words, and wanted to hurt himself to stay with Kat and go wherever he went. He is courageous even though he witnessed an awful death. Although Paul is a good comrade and a smart decision maker, his best trait is that he is a brave
The global bloodshed of World War I began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. The casualties of the war were at least 38 million, while others suffered significant losses, and were badly injured. World War I was significant in the advancement in weaponry, artillery, and strategies but still lacked the proper living conditions for the soldiers to remain healthy. The book All Quiet on the Western Front, narrated by Paul Bäumer, and written by Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of young German soldiers fighting on the German front during World War I. What began as a patriotic and heroic adventure, the soldiers begin to realize the harsh and grim reality of the war, as they experienced weeks of brutal training, inhumane officials,
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
When Paul Baumer enlisted for World War I, he was unaware of how his mentality would drastically change. Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul is presented with situations that conflicts with his personality, and the war itself conflicts with how he feels he should acts. A once sensitive man who wrote poetry, Paul was a dynamic character who ended up a burnt-out, torn up man with no regards to other’s feelings, much less his own. All Quiet on the Western Front exemplifies how repeated exposure to the horrors of war left Paul Baumer a hollow shell of a man.
Remarque displays in All Quiet on the Western Front the toll this takes on the youthful soldiers that have partaken in the war. For since the beginning of time, war has always revolved around killing and destroying. The illustrious novel All Quiet on the Western Front exposes the drastic effects it has on the soldiers. War forces civil good men into doing acts they would never even imagine in their wildest dreams. At one point, Remarque artfully depicts a scene in which Paul is forced to kill another soldier in hand to hand combat.
Paul throughout the novel can see things his friends can see. He can see him getting recognition from people among him
Along with being a father figure to the boys, Kat, as Paul referred to him, helped the prolong the boys life on the front. On a more philosophical level Kat believed if you gave every soldier the same food and pay “the war will be over and
In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Bäumer participates in the bloodiest war of all time, and he develops the skills of intelligence, leadership, and loyalty. In
Characters in “All Quiet on the Western Front” continually die throughout the story due to wounds that they sustain during battle. An influential character to the development of the novel, Kemmerich, dies early on. In his important role in the novel, Kemmerich has a deep camaraderie with his fellow soldiers, an impactful death, and his symbol of the inability to have good foresight. An important part of being in war: the ability to trust fellow soldiers, camaraderie, and Kemmerich displays this perfectly. When Kemmerich dies, Paul and other soldiers stay by his side, and his “face is still wet from the tears” after leaving his comrades to continue fighting in war (Remarque 32).
Paul wanted to live his own life to the best of his ability, and find his own path. It made him feel loved that people cared about him enough to want to help, but he made the choice to live by his own rules, and live independently, just like a fly fisherman is independent and doesn’t accept flies or unsolicited advice from
An Evil Force through the eyes of an Innocent Man World War II was a devastating war with over 18 million casualties accounted for not even including famine and diseases. All Quiet on the Western Front follows a group of germanic recruits and their pathway throughout the way they saw the tragedy of the war. In the classic novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses symbolism to show camaraderie, a loss of innocence, and how life can be impacted in monumental ways when people choose to not back down when an evil force awakens. During hardships and tough times, comradeship through a brotherhood can be tested but true comrades will stick together. Recruits always had to be under supervision
However, when they were sent out into the midst of the war many of them realised the misconceptions they had and were led to believe. They became disillusioned as they realized that the war was much more brutal and horrific than they had previously believed. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque effectively comments on the horrors of war from Paul’s perspective, especially when Paul comments on injuries the soldiers endure and witness by stating “We see men go on living with the top of their skulls missing; we see soldiers go on running when both their feet have been shot away…Another man…with his guts spilling out over his hands as he holds them in.” (Remarque,
The book cover of, All Quiet on The Western Front, quotes to be ‘’the greatest war novel of all time’’. The author, Erich Remarque, experiencing war himself; uses the protagonist, Paul Baumer, to express his own background and horrors of World War One. With this, it alternates between his vividly dying memories of the times before the war and the nightmares of trench warfare; although a first person narrative. Erich served in combat during WW1 in Germany and was wounded five times. The last injury was very severe and kept him out of the war.
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.
They reflect upon how their lives cannot compete with how the posters, and that they will never have the innocence of the girl. They crave for intimacy, and Paul was disheartened when the French ladies they meet was unable to provide him with what he needed. Along the story, they also jest with irony about their future. They show signs of envy towards Kat’s family, and feel at loss about their own lack of
After experiencing the horrors of World War I, Paul believes he is “nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end” (Remarque 185). Paul is in fact guilty for his involvement in the violence of the war. He realizes this fact and becomes dispirited because he bemoans allowing himself to get involved in such cruelty. Despite the fact that Paul experiences adverse emotions because of it, he learns from his past blemishes. Even though he can never really rescind his previous actions, he still uses them as a guide towards refraining from repeating the same missteps.