Western Front Reflection

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is a novel told by a nineteen-year-old by the name of Paul Bäumer. This novel is taken place in about 1914 until about 1918 during WWI. These men left everything behind including jobs, parents, wives, children, and dreams they hoped to eventually achieve. During this life journey the men take, they will begin to lose those who are close to them. Along with Paul were three others who had joined with him, Albert Kropp, Müller, and Leer. As well as four of their friends Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Deterring, and Stainslaus Katczinsky. The beginning of the book started off with explaining how the men receive rations for tobacco and food. Behm seems to be the first on to leave them, while he was out fighting on
The men are now heading off to Russia where they feel as if they are in beginner’s camp. Just then, Paul indeed does kill someone with his hands, instantly having remorse. By the end of the book, it is eventually just Paul still alive. Müller has passed, Katczinsky has passed, Kropp wants to shoot himself due to loosing a limb. They later state that the Summer of 1918 was the worst yet. In October of 1918, Paul had fallen and passed. They reported the day as “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Remarque, 296). As I picked up the book after reading Mans Search for Meaning, I wasn’t sure how I would like it. War books are hard for me to get into especially all the details that are given and the need to google many words that I don’t know. I was unable to connect with this novel as well as I did with the last. Although I did not like this book due to the content, I still enjoyed grasping the knowledge as much as I could. I indeed did use an audio taping to help me read because no matter what I did, I could not get as involved in the book as I wanted to. My first thoughts were why are these men fighting for rations? Do they really have it that bad? And what is all this talk about war and its