All Quiet On The Western Front Summary

In a time period filled with war and conflict, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a difficult read due to the heavy topic it pertains to. The story begins with Paul Bӓumer and his friends from school joining the army. They joined because they thought war would be honorable thanks to Kantorek, their teacher. After their ten weeks of training and their first two weeks of being on the front lines, only eighty of the one hundred fifty men return. Paul’s friend, Franz Kemmerich, has his leg amputated and he eventually dies because of it. At this point, Paul learns to disconnect his feelings from himself. Reinforcements come for their company and they are sent on a mission to place barbed wire on the front lines.
This exchange is between Paul and Gérard. When Paul kills Gérard, he feels sorrow and despair for what he has done. He learns of Gérard’s name, wife, kids, and farm back home by searching his body. Paul is traumatized after this experience. He says to the dead man, “Comrade, I did not want to kill you… now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship.” Even though Paul only knew Gérard when he had jumped into the shell hole and then died, he felt remorseful for killing a man that “could be his brother like Kat and Albert” if the rifles and uniforms were taken away. Paul also felt heartbroken because he had killed one of his own kind; another French man that became a soldier to honor and serve his country in World War I. The relationship between Paul and the dead man fueled Paul’s desire to be done with the war. It also made him realize that if he did finally become free from it, he would never live a normal life because of what he has seen and
Best friends from high school, Paul and Albert joined the army voluntarily with a few of their other classmates. They trained together, fought together, and always stuck together. At one point, Albert gets injured and the same happens to Paul. When Albert’s leg is amputated, Paul does not leave him until he has to go back to the front lines. Kat and Paul also have a special bond that is illustrated when Paul says, “We don't talk much, but I believe we have a more complete communion with one another than even lovers have.” The men were cooking a goose together in the middle of the night. They could have been in danger at any moment but they were just focused on how they were lucky to have a friend alive. Paul and Albert have the longest friendship, continuing through dark days. Kat and Paul have an unexplainable bond that blossomed as the war and fighting dragged on. The two men are the ones that Paul has the greatest interconnection with out of his company. The brotherhood they have stretches into the darkness of war. In conclusion, the different connections the characters have together makes the novel even more powerful than it already is. Paul has at least one connection to every character in the book but the men who knew each other before the war, the man that Paul killed out of instinct, and the brothers in combat are the most significant to the novel. All