Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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Reid Fuhr Mr. Laughary World Cultures Honors English 10 March 7, 2012 pAll Quiet on the Western Front War changes people. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer, a German soldier during the Great War, is changed. As the war rages on, Paul begins to live in a more modernist way. In the war novel, Paul Baumer’s failure of language and pessimism leads to his quiet and calm death. Receiving 17 days of leave, Paul travels to his hometown, knowing he must go see Kemmerich’s mother, “I was beside him. He died at once” (180). Paul is deliberately telling Kemmerich’s mother a blatant lie. Kemmerich died in a gruesome manner after he had his leg amputated. Kemmerich’s mother is not convinced that Paul is telling the truth, saying, “I have felt how terribly he died. I have heard his voice at night, I have felt his anguish—tell the truth, I want to know it, I must know it” (180). Paul deliberately continues being vague in order to comfort his comrade’s mother. She is relentless in investigating her son’s death, pleading, “Are you willing never to come back yourself, if isn’t true?” and Paul quickly replies, “May I never come back if he wasn’t killed instantaneously” (181). This is…show more content…
When Paul goes back home on leave, he thinks to himself, “I imagined leave would be different from this” (168). Paul does not feel at home even though he is at his house with his family. Paul reaches the realization that he is more at home on the front, “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world” (168). Paul is clearly more comfortable with life on the front. For months now, Paul has only known war and conflict, and a sudden change in that lifestyle can be unbearable. Additionally, when he finds out that his mother is dying of cancer, Paul feels sorry for

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