Even though he is finally home, out of danger, Remarque doesn’t give Paul the same sense of security that was present before wartime. While he is taking in his home once again, the narrator says that he is “not myself”, and that there is “a veil between” him and his family (160). Remarque has used the war to change Paul emotionally, in the same way that it has for every single one of the other veterans involved. Later on, sitting in his bedroom, the changes make themselves apparent again. He reminisces about his childhood, when he was fascinated with books and the universes they contained, but trying to read them now, he says that “images float through my mind”, but instead of whisking him to an alternate world, “they do not grip me, they are mere shadows and memories” (172). By depriving Paul of the things he used to comfort himself with, Remarque is showing how total war is as psychologically destructive as it is
Even though he is finally home, out of danger, Remarque doesn’t give Paul the same sense of security that was present before wartime. While he is taking in his home once again, the narrator says that he is “not myself”, and that there is “a veil between” him and his family (160). Remarque has used the war to change Paul emotionally, in the same way that it has for every single one of the other veterans involved. Later on, sitting in his bedroom, the changes make themselves apparent again. He reminisces about his childhood, when he was fascinated with books and the universes they contained, but trying to read them now, he says that “images float through my mind”, but instead of whisking him to an alternate world, “they do not grip me, they are mere shadows and memories” (172). By depriving Paul of the things he used to comfort himself with, Remarque is showing how total war is as psychologically destructive as it is