Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Accompanying the great horrors of the war was an extraordinary sense of comradeship that was forged between the soldiers as they went through countless hardships and unimaginable suffering together. Throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul and the men of the Second Company received strength from one another. As the war created a sharp distinction between soldiers and civilians, Paul and his friends only had each other. When all else fail, they could only rely on the powerful bond that is comradeship to survive the harsh conditions all the while keeping their sanity in check. Although the experiences the soldiers underwent were horrifying, comradeship enabled them to keep on fighting for it promoted unity, camaraderie, as well as a greater will to …show more content…
Traumatic events that happened broke the young men, yet, at the same time, bonded them in the most unexpected ways. They experienced everything in the front together, from eating to using the latrines. “Since then we have learned better than to be shy about such trifling immodesties. In time things far worse than that came easy to us… I no longer understand why we should always have shied at these things before. They are, in fact, just as natural as eating and drinking.” (Remarque 5) In war, there is change in perspective. What was once deemed vulgar is no longer viewed as so. The example of the soldiers using the latrines together pointed out a lack in privacy, which promoted commonality, which eventually led to camaraderie. Comradeship is not the ability to sympathize but to empathize with your fellow comrades. This was proven as Paul came to see this when he dealt with new recruits who are fresh to the war. Paul helped the recruits because he understood their suffering. In a similar situation, Paul and the others come to the aid of another recruit who seems to be on the brink of insanity during