All Quiet On The Western Front Summary

Improved Essays
Paul Baumer, a man who enlists with the German army with his fellow classmates in the time of World War I, and is the narrator of this story. The name of this story is called All Quiet On The Western Front and the authors name is Erich Maria Remarque. The German recruits all think that they could acquire metals and honor quickly; on the other hand though they figure out that it is not the case at all. The team has a terrible experience all together being a part of the war. The first enduring experience for the troop was dealing with Corporal Hemmelstoss. This man was the cruelest drill Sargent in their regiment that enforced large amounts of punishments for the smallest misdeeds done. The next grueling experience for the troops was when they had to fight in the trenches. The trenches did not suppress the loud bangs from bombs, or provide a safe escape route if needed, for these trenches are only somewhat helpful. Even though their moral does not drop, Paul and his regiment are in misery and disarray when they lose fellow …show more content…
The main character in the story, Paul Baumer, had to witness all of his friends and comrades die in battle. This sadness is seen by the way she describes the way the characters talk to each other right before their deaths. Not only does Baumer care for his comrades, but he also shows empathy for enemy soldiers as well. Baumer has stabbed an enemy solider and saw him die over a long period of time. Instead of boasting about his kill in battle, he thinks about what the enemy’s wife will feel. “No doubt his wife still thinks of him; she does not know what happened. He looks as if he would have often written to her;-she will still be getting mail from him- tomorrow, in a week’s time-perhaps even a stray letter a month hence” (222). This shows that Baumer has a true sense of sadness as he thinks about the enemy soldier’s

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front, a war novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, incorporates a plethora of similar and contrasting ideas to many other renowned war texts. With new machinery and combat techniques introduced for the first time during WWI, the battle Remarque writes about had far more casualties than anyone had ever anticipated. Machine guns, flamethrowers, and particularly poison gas took millions of lives on the battlefield. All of this, in turn, caused conditions to be vile in WWI. The authors of other war literature also illustrate how the harsh realities of war heavily impact soldiers, but they refer to different wars and accounts of war when doing so. Despite the fact that these sources…

    • 1857 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure. Death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a beginning generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war”(Remarque). Taking place in World War two, a young man loses everything he held dear to him by becoming a soldier. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Erich demonstrates how the war can force soldiers to grow up by destroying their identity, youth, and innocence.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The effects of World War I were felt worldwide during 1914 to 1918. It did not only affect the countries that were participating in it; it also affected those who were not. Erich Maria Remarque crafts an excellent account of World War I in All Quiet on the Western Front, in which the brutality of the war when it was being fought is portrayed through Paul Baumer, a soldier’s, eyes. The high casualty and death rate of young German soldiers and the negative impact of the war on the German society contributed to the changing views of the War for soldiers in combat because it gave them a new perspective on the way they saw their future and the world. Paul and his friends had a different opinion of the war after they saw what destruction it could…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his book, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque is characterizing a young generation who lost everything in the Great War. He describes how Paul the main character, and his comrades perish one by one to the brutality of the war. The author describes how they become more dehumanized, as they fight endlessly for nothing. Because in many of the fiercest battles of the war, there is hardly any territory won or lost, yet the casualties are huge. Finally, the book has an anti-war message prevalent throughout as strong theme.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    World War I was one of the deadliest wars in human history, killing sixteen million soldiers alone, with a total of thirty seven million casualties including civilians. Mankind has been shaped by war throughout its existence. War can vary with type such as guerrilla or nuclear warfare. However, one aspect of war that remains the same is its ability to lay waste to all in its path. War has killed, not only the promising young men and women, but it has killed their dreams and goals. The horror of war is not only felt by the soldiers, but the civilians who also experience its horrors although not perhaps to its fullest extent. War does not distinguish between civilian or soldier, its horrors spread and cause physical and mental detriment. In the novel, All Quiet on…

    • 1461 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “War does not determine who is right- only who is left,” is a quote by Bertrand Russell. This spectrum expresses the casualties of war. In other words, Russell means war is used as an outlet to define a “winner”, or in this case, someone who is right. The veiled truth is that there are no true winners of war when comparing the damage created and the lives lost. Looking at war through that perspective, John F. Kennedy, among others, also agreed. Kennedy believed if mankind didn’t put an end to war, than war would surely put an end to us. On the contrary, there are those who support war and all it has to offer, but my main focus is to stress the brutality and horrors behind what war really is. People are deceived when they think they know what…

    • 1616 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In chapter nine of All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses diction and imagery to establish the theme that the people who are thought to be one’s enemies in war can actually turn out to share some similar qualities with one another. After Paul stabs the soldier who unexpectedly enters the shell hole Paul is in, he instantly regrets the action he has performed. As he watches the man’s life slowly fade away, Paul speaks to the nearly lifeless body and says, “If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert” (Remarque 9-10). Paul realizes that what he knows about who his enemy is is all based on the color of the uniform each person is wearing. He uses the word “brother” to describe the inner…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The first main instance is in chapter 6. In Chapter 6, Paul and a few others comes across a few soldiers whose noses are cut off by the enemy’s and eyes poked out with bayonets. Their mouths and even their noses are stuffed with some sawdust so they suffocate to death (if not already dead). This constant view of death that causes the soldiers to fight back like insensible animals. They used spades to butcher the enemy faces and jab bayonets into the backs of enemy’s who was too slow to get away from the bloodbath. Their cold-heartedness is contrasted with the reaction of the new recruits who cried and trembled out of fear . In the next quote after Paul sees this awful sight and he describes what he thinks him and many others have become.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book All Quiet On the Western front which is set behind the German Front Lines During World War l. We hear a story of six young soldiers who all went to school together and volunteered to fight in the great war due to nationalism and the thought of heroism of fighting for Germany their homeland. We are told the horrors of fighting in trench warfare on the western front and how it is to live their day by day. All Quiet On the Western Front shows the true brutality of war and we see its effect as certain things begin to take a toll on every character throughout the story with what they see and go through while they are fighting in the Trenches.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front is set during World War I, behind the German frontlines where Paul Baumer is assigned. The setting intertwines back and forth between the warfront and the camp where Baumer stays. Once during the novel, Baumer goes home on leave, but the setting quickly deteriorates to the warfront. The only additional setting in the novel is in the hospital. Erich Maria Remarque did a great job at showing the reader a clear picture of what went on in the perspective of Paul, as I continued to read I began to have a better understanding of how he and his fellow soldiers interacted together. This book allowed the reader to grasp how demanding and petrifying…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They got injured, died, and experienced death and things that are not meant for the human eye to see almost every day. This causes the soldiers to not be able to reconnect with society, their families and their surroundings. The soldiers want to forget about the war (which they never will), but the civilians want to hear about it. “He wants me to tell him about the front; he is curious in a way that I find stupid and distressing; I no longer have any real contact with him.” Baümer is talking about his father, whom Paul is finding annoying. Baümer has become annoyed with how naïve the people back home are about the war. Nobody is able to understand the war and what soldiers like Paul have been through. Paul’s father is only interested in the stories that Paul has to tell him, and asks him questions such as whether Paul has been in hand to hand combat. Paul, wants to forget the war, and being pestered with questions that bring back awful memories separates Paul and his father. Walking around in his house, Paul doesn’t feel as he normally would, “a terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me.” After experiencing the war, nothing is the same as what it once is, books which Paul read many times are no longer valuable to him, his own house has an eerie strangeness to it. Going from having to be on guard at any mosoldierst and living with constant anxiety and stress, to going back to a time when Paul still had his youth, his innocence, and is carefree, is a big change. The experience of war will take away Paul’s and his fellow soldier’s curiosity and aptitude for fun and learning for the rest of their lives. The soldier’s relationships with their environment and peers will never be the same after the…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD takes over the lives’ of people everyday. PTSD is a debilitating anxiety disorder that is often found in individuals whom have experienced traumatic or traumatizing events. PTSD is common in individuals whom have served in the military and have witnessed traumatic events, therefore, making it next to impossible to live their everyday lives.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They felt as if they were caught into battling to demonstrate their dedication and patriotism to Germany. One colleague Josef Behm was fiercely slaughtered toward the start of the war, he kicked the bucket a horrifying demise. He was shot in the eye while he was left for dead he calls for help overpowered with agony to just be lethally shot by the foe. The cohorts all accuse their teacher, Kantorek. Books have titles that don't correspond with the data inside. Once in a while it is difficult to see what the creator is attempting to pass on in the title. In any case, in All Quiet on the Western Front I knew precisely what Erich Maria Remarque was attempting to pass on to the perusers. Paul states toward the end of part twelve "I am peaceful. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more." By the end of the book, after the majority of the years of battling Paul has no longing to continue battling. He feels as if he doesn't ha anything to go home to, and his whole era has been wiped…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is a remarkable story of the German soldiers during world war I and focuses on Paul and his group of friends and family. We are positioned as a reader to think in a negative way…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Paul Bauer from the novel All Quiet on the Western Front and Adolf Eichmann were both guilty of a lot, granted one character is a piece of historical fiction while the other is real, but how similar are they, really? Paul Bauer and other German soldiers committed atrocities upon the opposing armies during World War 1 such as the use chlorine gas. Adolf Eichmann is responsible for sending millions of Jewish people to what were essentially death camps, where some were worked to nigh death and others were killed outright, often times in gas chambers. Thus are they really all that different as both are responsible for massacring human lives, one simply did so on a battlefield and the other did so in an office. Both men were wrapped up in what seemed…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays