Analysis : ' The Agony That His Friend '

This is illustrated in the scene where Paul and Kat catch a goose to roast. When considering his relationship with Kat, Paul says “we don’t talk much, but I believe we have more complete communion with one another than even lovers have. We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and circle of death….. what does he know of me or I of him? Formerly we should have not have had a single thought in common now, we are so intimate that we do not even speak.”(64) The shared bond that the men have created is very present; moreover, the intimacy the men share causes them to better understand each other. He knows them so deeply, believing he knows "their every step and movement; I would recognize them at any distance.”(155) Due to the fact that the men spend most of their time together, camaraderie is what makes them who they are. “I could almost weep. I can hardly control myself any longer. But it will soon be alright back with Kat and Albert, this is where I belong.”Paul’s comrades are the men who inspire and motivate him to fight for his life, and continue to move forward, even in times of

"A wounded soldier? I shout to him-no answer- must be dead." The dead body has fallen out the coffin and the coffin has been unearthed because of the shelling. Even the dead and buried cannot rest in peace during this war. This just adds to the horror of the situation Paul is in.

War can destroy a young man mentally and physically. One might say that nothing good comes out of war, but in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, there is one positive characteristic: comradeship. Paul and his friends give Himmelstoss a beating in which he deserves due to his training tactics. This starts the brotherhood of this tiny group. As explosions and gunfire sound off a young recruit in his first battle is gun-shy and seeks reassurance in Paul's chest and arms, and Paul gently tells him that he will get used to it. The relationship between Paul and Kat is only found during war, in which nothing can break them apart. The comradeship between soldiers at war is what

Fear drives Paul and his comrades together and drives them to live not to feel like nothingness. By Paul joining the military he makes friends with Tjaden, Albert, Kropp, and Muller they create a bond, a brotherhood. Fear of dying and war drives them together because it gives them something to bond about, To have something in common. The fear of dying drives them to survive because without fear they would not exist, but voices and memories. Paul would be all alone and have thing nothing. Paul creates a different bond with a man Gerard Duval. Gerard is an enemy, but once Paul realize that he just like me he feels survivors guilt for killing him. He calls Gerard comrade in French his language. He finds out that Gerard was a printer, friend, husband, and a father. Paul wants to make it up be writing a letter, but can not because he can not write in French but than starts thinking he can send money to Gerard's family. This is an example of Paul’s fear of getting judge for killing this man. To get confronted with his guilt. The fear of loosing himself. He does he looses that he looses his

He uses death, tragedies, and brutal events to show the reader the stomach-turning way of life in war. Remarque makes Paul very ostentatious so to speak. He uses all these graphic images to get a point across. Paul explains during a bombardment, horses are hit as well as the men. “Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again” (28). The screams of the horses become implanted in the men’s heads, even though they cannot see them. Another gruesome image is that the soldiers go to take cover in a nearby cemetery. Paul illustrates the scene, “With a crash something bears down on us. It lands close beside us; a coffin thrown up” (31). Even the dead are being disturbed by the war. Paul wants it to seem as if the once dead are coming back to life. The last major imagery scene would be in the hospitals. The hospitals are a symbol of war. “It must be all lies and o no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is” (117). War is about killing another living thing. Once you are hit, you go to these “torture-chambers”. You go there

Paul’s books symbolize the shadow of war through the horrid violence limiting his connections to humanity. Paul’s book illustrate how the impacts by war stole his innocence and removed all his feelings to life when he tries to reconnect to the books to give sentimental meaning and revival. For instance, Paul enters his room filled with books of his childhood where he lived before the war. He turns to his books for rebirth to to once again “ feel the same

The young men at the front had a distant relationship that seemed to grow as the war went on. The men that fought at the front became alienated through all of the gruesome scenes they encountered and the problems they faced daily. After just two weeks of battle only half of the men that went to battle with Paul remained at the battle front. Paul along with all of the other soldiers at the front had to see their “brothers” shot and killed or wounded while fighting right by their side. Paul

The French soldier dies an agonizingly painful and prolonged death; his gurgling and whimpering haunting Paul, but when the soldier finally dies, the resulting silence is even more haunting and debilitating. “Paul describes the trenches, the shelling, the screams of wounded horses and men, the poison gas attack, and the rain that drenches everything. [He] describes the tension and the horror of a major battle, with the confusion, the noise, and death turning the soldiers into numbed, unthinking machines.” (All). Paul recognizes how war forces people to think and act in ways that differ from their values and beliefs, as they are desperate to survive. Remarque uses imagery and sensory details to skillfully formulate a raw and grisly atmosphere that leaves no aspect hidden. Towards the end of the novel, many of Paul’s comrades have died, and he is the only person left in his class who is alive. He expresses the desolation and misery he feels, “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear.” (Remarque 295). Paul has nothing left to lose at this point, so he faces his enemies free of fear and obligation to return back to his friends and his home. His sorrowful tone conveys his indifference towards death and his desire

This quote was stated at the very beginning of the book when one of Paul’s old friends, Kemmerich, is on his deathbed from an amputated leg. Paul said this because even though Kemmerich hadn’t died yet, Paul and his friends already debate about who should take Kemmerich’s boots when he does die. In doing so, they also disregard that Kemmerich doesn’t want to give the boots up yet. This grim and unorthodox reaction to a person being close to death at the start of the book really helps the author set the mood for the book as a whole. In the quote, Paul says he and his friends “have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial” is his explanation for why Paul and his war comrades don’t care about the sentimentality of the

While on leave, Paul also visits his father and some of his father's friends, but does not wish to speak to them about the war. The men are "curious [about the war] in a way that [Paul finds] stupid and distressing." They try to imagine what war is like but they have never experienced it for themselves, so they cannot see the reality of it. When Paul tries to state his opinion, the men argue that "[he] sees only [his] general sector so [he is] not able to judge." These men believe they know more about the war and this makes Paul feel lost. He realizes that "they are different men here, men [he] can not understand..." and Paul wants to be back with those he can relate to, his fellow soldiers. Paul wishes he had never gone on leave because out there "[he] was a soldier, but [at home] he is nothing but an agony to himself." When Paul returns to the battlefield, he is excited to be with his comrades. When he sees his company, "[Paul] jumps up, pushes in amongst them, [his] eyes searching," until he finds his friends. It is then

The first quote “War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes when their sons go off to fight and lose their lives” (“War”) shows that war brings destruction, unsettlement and sadness not only to the soldiers themselves that die or get injured, but also to their close friends and family, especially their mothers. It shows that there is not only bloodshed in war on the battlefields, but also that their houses become battlefields in which there is no bloodshed, but rather tearshed. This quote reminds one of All Quiet on the Western Front, wherein Kemmerich dies because of an infection from his amputation. When Paul goes on his leave, he has the task of telling Kemmerich’s mother about his

Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a

Many of Paul's fellow army men do not survive. After the loss of Paul's closest friends,

While the disconnection allows the soldier to adapt to the brutal war environment, it inhibits them from re-entering society. When he takes his leave, he is unable to feel comfortable at home. Even if Paul had survived the war physically, he most likely would not have integrated back into society suitably. The emotional disconnection inhibits soldiers from mourning their fallen friends and comrades. However, Paul was somewhat less than able to completely detach himself from his feelings, and there are several moments in the when he feels himself pulled down by emotion. These rush of feelings indicate the magnitude to which war has automated Paul to cut himself off from feeling, as when he says, with unbridled understatement, “Parting from my friend Albert Kropp was very hard. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army (p. 269) .”

In the trenches friendship becomes a very important part of the lives of the soldiers. The soldiers see revolting horrors and unimaginable sorrow together. Friendship becomes a powerful bond amongst the comrades. As Paul watches all of his friends die, he remains to fight after the death of his best friend Kat. He loses his will to stay alive.