Who Is Kemmerich's Hardships In All Quiet On The Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque follows the life of Paul Baumer, a nineteen year old male who fights in World War I. Paul and his friends from school are pressured by their teacher, Kantorek, to be part of the German army on the French front. Paul and his fellow soldiers came into the war thinking about honor and glory, but after experiencing ten weeks of brutal training they no longer consider war as glorious or honorable as they were led to believe and they live in constant physical fear every day. Throughout the novel, Paul experiences bombardment, horrible living conditions and comrades dying right in front of his eyes. One in particular was Stanislaus Katczinsky, whose death impacted Paul the most. Kat gets hit

In almost every scene, there are hardships that Paul and his friends go through. The novel deals with how the soldiers react to those hardships and whether or not they overcome them. For instance in chapter one, Paul and his friends have to comfort their classmate, Kemmerich as he had just had his leg amputated and lays on his death bed. Their classmate is dying, but all they care about is his boots. A cheap pair of boots was more valuable than a human life. Unfortunately, the war had made them all so numb that all they care about is survival. If they get Kemmerich’s boots maybe they will make it through the week. Little did they know, the boots overshadow the owners’ death. The boots helped them block out the actuality of the situation. If they tried to dwell on every friend’s death, it will only drive them all into

Paul Baumer represents the soldiers as the “Lost Generation” (Remarque 105). World War I turned a generation of young men, ready to attack life with full force into a generation of war-torn, and greatly aged, men. The war has aged them, both physically and especially mentally. The soldiers constantly discuss how they are no longer “youth” anymore, but actually old men of nineteen.

Remarque stayed unbiased throughout All Quiet on the Western Front. He spoke about all of the soldiers and all of their different experiences and situations. In his book, he just gives the readers the impression of the war. Even though he fought in the war himself, Remarque definitely did not take sides or attack a certain country because he may have had hurt feelings towards them. He was able to stay completely neutral and depict the nightmare on European battlefields