All Quiet on the Western Front essay Brandon Quander PDF

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Brandon Quander 10-17-20 Consider the character of Paul Baumer and the effects that the horrors of war have on his character. Is Paul Baumer able to maintain his humanity throughout the novel or does the war ultimately tear it away from him? Take a stand and defend your opinion based on the various incidents of the novel. Use specific examples from the text to support your claims.

All Quiet On The Western Front takes place during World War I. Paul Baumer describes the lives of him and his classmates who leave their regular lives behind to fight for Germany. The majority of the novel is set behind the German front lines, where the Paul Baumer is assigned. To answer the question, the definition of humanity must be clear. Also, the differences between the word humanity and sanity since these words often get confused. Humanity is the collective characteristics that belong uniquely to human beings, such as kindness, mercy and sympathy. Sanity is the ability to think and behave regularly and rationally; sound mental health. While humanity talks about human characteristics such as kindness, mercy, and sympathy, sanity is just the ability to behave naturally and rationally. In All Quiet in the Western Front Paul Baumer loses his humanity at the end of the war before his death.

Throughout the days that pass by, it is just a process of wash rinse repeat. Paul wakes up in the morning, gets ready, eats then goes to the front lines. Then for the rest of the day, dodge shells defend and attack then attack themselves hoping not to get killed in the process. All through his days, all he deals with are the blood, sweat, tears of himself, and his allies. The process never stops, and through this process, Paul realizes how bleak life is. “We count the weeks no more. It was winter when I came up, and when the shells exploded the frozen clods of earth were just as dangerous as the fragments. Now the trees are green again. Our life alternates between billets and the front. We have almost grown accustomed to it; war is a cause of death like cancer and tuberculosis, like influenza and dysentery. The deaths are merely more

frequent, more varied and terrible (ch11, lines 1-5).” Waking up to this bloodshed and horror each day has broken Paul from his humanity. From this, he no longer shows kindness, sympathy, or mercy to anyone to the point where his only focus is to kill and survive like a wild animal. Then later on in the chapter, he sees one of his partners die right in front of him, and he shows little to no emotion. From all of this cruelty and horror that he witnesses through the battle, he no longer can express simple emotions like sadness. He moves on with his life and continues to fight like an animal.

In the day to day life at the front Paul experiences his character changes from compassionate to greed and want for bloodshed. While at the front, all Paul wants to do is go back home to his hometown and live his life the way he wants to live it. He can live his dream in peace with his wife on a clear sunny day under a tree having a picnic. In one of the battles, mustard gas is launched at the German front lines and Paul inhauls some of the toxic fumes. In response to this, the military gives him 14 days to recover until he can return to the front lines. Paul travels back to his hometown to spend time with all his childhood friends and family, but when he gets there, nothing feels the same. None of this feels like home to him, and the more time he stays there, the more he longs to return to the frontlines of his new “home.” Baumer says, “I have fourteen days rest because I have swallowed a bit of gas; in the little garden I sit the whole day long in the sun. The armistice is coming soon, I believe it now too. Then we will go home. Here my thoughts stop and will not go any farther. All that meets me, all that floods over me are but feelings--greed of life, love of home, yearning for the blood, the intoxication of deliverance. But no aims (ch 12, lines 6-11).” Throughout the novel, Paul is the most compassionate, caring, and kind person of the whole group. Now the likes of war have corrupted his humanity, and he only cares for greed and bloodshed.

Later on, while he is still on leave, there is another moment where Paul loses his humanity. In one of the battles, mustard gas is launched at the German front lines and Paul inhauls some of the toxic fumes. In response to this, the military gives him 14 days to recover until he can return to the front lines. Paul travels back to his hometown to spend time with all his childhood friends and family. By the time Paul gets the chance to see them, he has changed in ways that they cannot understand because of his time at war. When Paul arrives in his hometown, everybody asks questions about the war and the front lines. Then they start asking him if there will be peace soon or an armistice. Paul due to all the questions about peace and armistice causes him to snap and start yelling at everyone to shut up and leave him alone. Paul says, “Everyone talks of peace and armistice. All wait. If it again proves an illusion, then they will break up; hope is high, it cannot be taken away again without an upheaval. If there is not peace, then there will be a revolution (ch12, lines 3-5).” In this whole book, Paul only shows compassion to others and always treats everybody with respect like the Russian prisoners. While all the other German soldiers treat the prisoners in such cruel ways, Paul is the only one to show sympathy toward them. Paul, throughout this scene, gives them food and shares cigarettes with them. Now just because family and friends are asking if there will be peace soon, he snaps. Throughout the days of the war, Paul slowly loses his humanity to the point where he does not even show compassion to his own family.

To answer the question, the definition of humanity must be clear. The differences between the word humanity and sanity since these words often get confused. While humanity talks about human characteristics such as kindness, mercy, and sympathy, sanity is just the ability to behave naturally and rationally. Throughout, there are multiple examples where Paul Baumer loses his humanity. It first starts when he starts to act more like an animal more than a human. This continues to get worse deeper and deeper into the novel. Then when he was finally given leave all he wanted to do is kill and go back to the front. During that same scene

he yells at his friends and family just because of different questions. It is clear that in the closing chapters “In All Quiet in the Western Front” Paul Baumer loses his humanity before his death....