I have just finished my third reading of one of my favourite books: All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (Pseudonym of Erich Paul Remark). I have bought the book a couple of years ago, but now I have only begun to appreciate it. It is an interesting dive into World War I as recounted by a young soldier named Paul Bäumer. The entire novel is told by Paul's POV and so we get to dive into his thoughts, dreams, feelings and experiences. Paul is a young soldier who joins the Imperial German Army with his friends (Muller, Kropp, Westhus), and he gets to know Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat) and Tjaden (a jewish soldier). Kat is the oldest in the group (he is 40 years old), and he has some special "sixth" sense that helps him find food, clothing and shelter in the most dire situations.
At the beginning of the story, Paul recounts his harsh days in the training camp, where he and his friends are mistreated by an officer named Himmelstoss (ironically, this means "Heaven-Bound"), who makes them do all sorts of useless activities: Parade Salutes, cleaning with a toothbrush, not allowing them to go to the bathroom and cruelly making the person who has to go lay on the top of the bunkbed so that the person below will get stained with the urine of the man above him (although Paul and his friends find a way to elude this system). The night before departing for the front, Paul and his friends make Himmelstoss pay for his harsh treatment by ambushing him when he is walking in a small trail during the night: the boys pounce on him and beat him senselessly until he passes out.
Paul recounts that one of his teachers, named Kantorek, had made them enlist in the Army due to his patriotic feelings and luring them by using their feelings for their country as a leverage. Paul says that the war has sharpened his senses, although this comes with a heavy price (Paul loses his youth to war). Paul also recounts that he had a couple of poems inside of his drawer at home, and he expresses the desire to go back to working on them.
Kemmerich, one of Paul's friends, is wounded during a battle, so Paul and his friends visit him in the army hospital. It is clear that Kemmerich is near death, since he rambles about his mother and his home. Muller, noticing a pair of boots near Kemmerich's bed, asks him if he can borrow them (Kemmerich had his leg amputated due to the wound he sustained), but Kemmerich doesn't reply. Paul's friends leave the hospital, but he remains to speak a little bit. Kemmerich dies of sepsis after speaking with Paul as he tries to call a doctor (who, at first, ignores him and then states that he has a lot more work to do).
The situation goes south rapidly, and Paul, along with many of his friends, risks to die in certain moments. After being wounded in the leg, Paul takes an ordinary leave to visit his small town and his family. To his dismay, Paul finds out that he can't connect with the "real" world anymore. This is exacerbated when one of his father's friends tries to speak about the war (without having any real knowledge on the conditions at the front): Paul tries to debate with him, but he is shut down by the patriotic citiziens.
Paul goes back to the front (where he sees Kat die), and is then killed in October 1918.
This book gave me a lot of different feelings (conflict, sadness, dismay). But I really want to know what others think. Do you know this book? Did you like it? Has it made you feel something?
by Justanotheryankee-12