Entry Five: Conclusion

                Upon the conclusion of All Quiet on the Western Front, I found myself with a much deeper understanding of just how devastating war can be.  The final reading section begins with Paul Bäumer trapped between the two warring trenches of the French and German soldiers.  He was left behind in a shell-hole after he had been too frightened to follow the rest of his comrades on a scouting mission.  For two days he is trapped without food or water and to make matters worse, a French soldier stumbles into his shell hole on the first night.  Instinctively, Paul stabs the man three times, but somehow this is not enough to kill him, and the man lays dying beside Paul for an entire day.  After a while he attempts to save the man, but he realizes that he is too late and the man will soon be dead.  In a delirious state from the lack of food and water and the constant firing of guns just above his head, Paul begins to talk to the man after he has died and promises that he will write to his wife and kids if he ever escapes.  It is during this moment in the book that Bäumer truly begins to realize that he never hated this man, or any of the French soldiers for that matter, enough to kill them.  He understands that the French soldier is merely a man just like himself, it is just that they have been pitted against each other for reasons that both of them do not understand.

                Later, Paul and one of the other members of his company are wounded and they are sent to a Catholic hospital within Germany.  There, Paul sees how greatly the war has affected everyday civilians within Germany, as supplies are scarce and surgeons often amputate limbs simply because they lack the necessary materials needed to treat the wounds.  Bäumer states, “It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out… A hospital alone shows what war is” (Remarque 263).  Finally, after a few months Paul is sent back to the front lines even though he is still in poor condition, and it becomes obvious that the Germans are losing the war as they are desperately in need of more and more soldiers along the Western Front.

                Following his reunion with the Second Company, Paul begins to notice the worsening state of the German troops as many of his company members have been killed.  One day, Paul is fighting alongside his best friend, Kat, when a bullet hits Kat in the leg.  Paul is determined to save him, and due to the lack of medics along the front, Bäumer must sprint to the nearest medical station.  Although the journey is incredibly exhausting, Paul believes that he has saved Kat until he realizes Kat is no longer breathing in his arms.  He realizes that shrapnel from a missile has pierced that back of his head and that he had been dead for the last fifteen minutes of the sprint.  Paul is in shock and he writes, “Do I walk?  Do I have feet still… All is usual.  Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died.  Then I know nothing more” (Remarque 291).  It is clear that Paul will never quite outlive the trauma which this event, and the war in general, has incurred upon him.  Kat was the one in the company that he had always looked up to and the one which he described his relationship with by saying that it was deeper than a relationship between lovers.

                At this point in the story it seems as if Bäumer has nothing left.  His entire company has been killed except for him and he has experienced more trauma in just two years than most people experience in their entire lives.  In the final pages of the novel, Bäumer writes about the fact that his entire generation has been destroyed by the war.  By now all of his fellow classmates who joined the army with him and who could have gone on to lead successful lives have been killed.  He states that, “Men will not understand us—for the generation that grew up before us, though it has passed these years with us already had a home and a calling…and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside” (Remarque 294).  I have often read about certain events devastating entire generations, but I could never comprehend how wide and deeply penetrating the effects of these effects could be.  Now after reading of how nearly all of Paul’s classmates were killed and how many more similar classrooms must have existed in Germany, I am beginning to realize the widespread effects of World War I.

                The novel concludes with the death of Paul in October, 1918.  Remarque writes, “He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping.  Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come” (Remarque 296).  The war had driven Paul to the point where he no longer had reason to live, as he would never be able to escape the horrific memories of the things that he had endured during the war even if peace was made.  The fact that an entire generation could be so ruined by conflict, to a point where soldiers wished that they might die so that they would find peace, is incomprehensible.  As a World War I veteran, Erich Remarque writes the story of Paul Bäumer in a way which is both blunt and poignant, and this makes All Quiet on the Western Front all the more moving.   

Entry Four: Character Analysis

               After the Second Company’s return to base camp following their latest tour of the Western Front, the remaining men attempt to regroup and relax.  They lounge around in order to pass the time between another inevitable stay in the trenches.  For the time being, Bäumer, Kat and the others, “have the two things a soldier needs for contentment: good food and rest” (Remarque 138).  Upon the return from one of his adventures with his close friends, Bäumer is called into the Orderly Room and given permission to head home on leave for about two weeks.  Although he wishes to visit his family, he is slightly reluctant to leave only because he knows that he may never see some of his friends again if they are called to the front before he returns.  Also, Paul has a hard time imagining what life will be like back at home after all that he has experienced along the battle lines.

                Much of the passage that I read deals with Bäumer’s experience while on leave.  At first he is so overcome with emotion upon his return home that he can barely speak to his sister and mother.  I also noticed that the author included the use of symbolism when depicting Paul’s return home.  Paul writes, “I lean against the wall and grip my helmet and rifle.  I hold them as tight as I can, but I cannot take another step” (Remarque 156).  This statement represents the difficulty Bäumer will have transitioning back into civilian life, whether that difficulty exists now or for the rest of his life.  Also, I feel as if Paul has difficulty connecting to his previous life before the war because he has changed so greatly in the time while he was gone, while the people of his hometown have changed very little.  In fact, I recently listened to a This American Life podcast (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) which detailed this difficult transition from wartime to peacetime and which included first-hand accounts of how soldiers felt when they returned home.  Many of them described how they felt incredibly nervous to be returning home because they felt as if their loved ones would not know them anymore and that it would be impossible to reconnect with them because of how they had changed.

                I also recognized that the way in which we treat the emotional health of soldiers is very different from the treatment methods used after World War I.  Since doctors have discovered PTSD and the extremely damaging effects it can have on soldiers, people are beginning to stress the importance of helping soldiers ease back into civilian life.  In Bäumer’s case, the people of his hometown only want to hear of the battles he fought and the spirit of the troops along the front lines.  Soon, Bäumer begins to feel depressed as no one else understands what he had to endure as a soldier and he has no way to express his true feelings.  The people around him only tell him that he needs to defeat the French, yet they have no idea of how bad things truly are and Paul finds it difficult to talk to anyone without feeling anger and loneliness.  He also attempts to hide the details of the war from the people around him, especially his mother, for fear that he would frighten them.  For example, when Paul’s mother asks him whether or not the war is bad he says, “No, Mother, not so very.  There are always a lot of us together so it isn’t so bad” (Remarque 161).

               In the end, Paul’s leave ends up making his return even worse, as he now has an idea of life outside of the war.  Perhaps he even has something to lose as he may never see his family again if he is killed during the fighting.  After a stint at a training camp, Paul returns to the Second Company to find that all of his friends are still alive.  Also, there camp is situated beside a German war prison and Paul often has to watch over the Russian prisoners.

                While he is watching over the prisoners, something odd begins to occur.  Slowly, he begins to become sympathetic to the Russians and he even provides them with some of his food.  This empathy causes Paul to completely lose control over his thoughts about the meaning behind the war, and he starts questioning his comrades about why they are even fighting.  He receives mixed responses and this only makes it more difficult to determine whether or not he believes in what he is fighting for.  I have included a glogster to emphasize this conflict.  http://alex82895.glogster.com/baumers-uncertainty/ Also, I have included another glogster to highlight Paul’s mixed emotions towards what were supposed to be his enemies, the Russians.  http://alex82895.glogster.com/the-russians/  I predict that as Paul’s views become more and more unstable, so will his ability to resist the pressure placed on him by the constant fighting.  Hopefully, this instability won’t lead to the death of Paul or any of his fellow soldiers.

Entry Three: Development of Plot

                For the majority of the second reading section, Paul Bäumer describes the chaotic life along the Western Front first-hand.  The young German soldier is sent to the battle front along with the rest of the Second Company, and they must remain there for a few weeks.  Most of the nights are spent in dugouts designed to protect the men from light fire, but they are still constantly at risk of being killed by heavy artillery or being suffocated by the poison gas of the French army.  During the day, they spend most of their time in the trenches becoming, “Thugs, murderers, into God only knows what devils…seeking and fighting for nothing but our deliverance” (Remarque 114).  The horrific way in which Bäumer describes himself indicates that he has completly given up his hope of ever returning to life as a normal civilian.  I have included a video which consists of actual footage from World War I in an attempt to illuminate what life was actually like for Bäumer and his fellow soldiers.

 

Due to the fact that the Western Front was considered to be so crucial to victory in World War I, many new military technologies were first deployed along the battle front.  Included in this video are various weapons which were recently created at the time, and these new military technologies often had devastating effects on both armies.   By the end of the Second Company’s time along the front, what was once a force of one-hundred men has been reduced to thirty-two.  The sheer number of these casualties obviously has a devastating effect on the rest of the company, and I predict that eventually this constant loss of life will begin to traumatize Bäumer if it hasn’t already begun to do so.  

Before the Second Company is dispatched to the Western Front, the narrator has a discussion with a few of his close friends regarding what they would do once the war ended.  Again, the author stresses the disconnect between a soldier’s life during World War I and typical civilian life.  This is emphasized by a statement made by one soldier when he says, “But nobody at home seems to worry much about it.  Two years of shells and bombs—a man won’t peel that off as easy as a sock” (Remarque 87).  When I began reading All Quiet on the Western Front I had imagined that the novel would focus more on the stresses of combat rather than stresses of life after combat.  To Bäumer and his peers though, this seems to be one of their main concerns.  They feel as if the war has so greatly separated them from their previous lives that it will be impossible for them to ever survive again in a civilian setting.  With Bäumer and the other members of his company, this separation is felt by the thousands of other German soldiers, most of them just out of high school.  Because the average German soldier is so young, they are in a difficult situation once they leave the army because they have no job to return to when they head home.  Luckily, Bäumer and his friends share the same problems concerning the return to civilian life and therefore are able to rely on each other for support.

The friendships Bäumer holds with the other members of his company, especially with the veteran named Kat, appear to be keeping him alive during these difficult times.  Together they have matured greatly and survived hardships, and these shared experiences are the reason behind most of realtionships.  For example, Bäumer almost seems to be describing himself when he states that his friend Kat is, “A little soldier…and if anyone were to caress him he would hardly understand, this soldier with the big boots and the shut heart, who marches because he is wearing big boots, and has forgotten all else but marching” (Remarque 95).  Together with Kat and the other members of his company, Bäumer has managed to survive and keep himself together even under stressful situations, such as being trapped in the dugout. 

                I have included the link to a website detailing the facts of World War I and particularly of the battles along the Western Front.  I included this link in order to provide some context for Bäumer’s narration and to understand what the young soldier must face along the battle front.  http://www.richthofen.com/ww1sum/

I also hope that this link will help allow readers to understand why Bäumert may seem as if the intial reasoning behind going to war was substantial, but after seeing the devastating effects it had on Germany’s youth, it may seem much less worthwhile.  I look forward to reading more of All Quiet on the Western Front and I continue to be impressed by Erich Remarque’s powerful writing.  

Entry Two: Character and Plot Overview

          At the beginning of All Quiet on the Western Front, the reader learns that a soldier named Paul Bäumer and the rest of the members of his company have eaten a meal which was much larger than the typical rations of the German army. The mood among the men is one of content, and Bäumer and his comrades seem to be enjoying one another’s company. Following this depiction of what almost seems to be a celebratory occasion for the soldiers, Bäumer briefly mentions that the explanation behind these increased rations is that nearly half of their company was killed along the Western Front the previous day. This nonchalant mention of what otherwise would seem like a horrific tragedy is an example of the particular style that Bäumer, the narrator, uses to describe the events of World War I.
          Bäumer’s style initially comes across as though he has become completely desensitized to the violence occurring all around him. The care with which he describes his fellow soldiers, such as Tjaden, Müller and Katczinsky, indicates that this is in fact untrue. For example, Bäumer constantly visits one of his comrades known as Kemmerich while he is dying in a hospital, and is beside him during his last hours, comforting him. In addition, Bäumer highlights the unique strengths of each of his fellow soldiers, especially Katczinsky who he describes as being one of the smartest men he has ever known, and says that he is grateful to be such close friends with him. Perhaps Bäumer’s blunt narration has become his only way to handle the death of his friends, a misfortune which is all too common for the young man. Also, I have found that this frank depiction of the war makes Erich Remarque’s writing, the author of this book, all the more poignant.
          Together these men must endure constant hardship, and it is clear that they rely heavily on the relationships between each other in order to keep themselves going. At the same time, I notice that Bäumer states that he often feels completely alone. I believe that this may be his reaction to the drastic differences between civilian and military life. Almost instantly does he leave the life of a typical high school teenager and become a soldier forced to face death on many occasions. At one point in the novel, Bäumer states, “We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through” (Remarque 13). It is obvious that Bäumer feels alienated by the combat and it is as if he is a part of a reality which is entirely different from the one he had known in the twenty years leading up to the war.
          Not only does he feel as if he has thoroughly lost his idea of life before the war, but it seems as if Bäumer has also lost his youth and has matured greatly in less than a year. He writes, “We are none more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk” (Remarque 18). It is apparent that Bäumer and his fellow soldiers never wished to age this quickly, it was just that the transformation was automatic due to the circumstances they were in. Now they long for childhood and a time when did not see more and more of their fellow Germans die every day. They all enlisted as just that, teenagers who had no understanding of what would be required of them and who only thought ideas of patriotism and of protecting Germany.
          Although this book largely details the thoughts of these young soldiers, it is also somewhat rooted in historical context pertaining to World War I. Therefore, I predict that the action of this novel will be loosely based on the movements of both the Allies and the Central Powers. Also, due to the fact that so many of Bäumer’s comrades have already been killed during the beginning of the book, I feel as if many more will be killed in the following pages, and that the dead may even include Katczinsky, who Bäumer greatly admires. Much of this book seems to be devoted to how Bäumer handles these deaths, and how he struggles over the idea that soon he too may be one of the dead. I look forward to reading more of Bäumer’s narration, and I hope that it continues to include the powerful metaphors and imagery which made the first section so captivating.