Soldiers Wallet Paul example essay topic

All Quiet on the Western Front by: Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet On The Western Front was set in Belgium, Germany. The novel covered about three years beginning in 1916. The setting was as important as the war itself, because it was told from a German perspective. No one knew what to expect from this war since it was the first world war.

The soldiers dint know who their friends or enemies were or what devastation might occur. Paul Baume r, the main character, narrated the story. Other important characters included Muller, Tjaden, Kat, and Kemmerich. Paul was forced to grow up in the second company of the German Army during the war. He had written a play and also some poetry but, never expected what he was about to encounter.

Muller was sharp, smart, young man who was constantly studying and worrying about doing well in school, even while at war. When Kemmerich died, Muller inherited his soft airman's boots, then he gave the boots to Paul when he died. Stanislaus Kat Katczinsky was a forty year old veteran who was a non-commission tutor. He helped Paul and his friends cope with the trauma of the war. Crop was the best student, He joined in on the rebellion against Himmelstoss, He threatened suicide after losing his leg, but accepted an artificial one. Tjaden was a skinny, former locksmith who had an appetite twice his size.

He had a habit of wetting the bed when got nervous. Corporal Himmelstoss, his boot camp drill Sargent, was constantly making fun of him for his nervous habit of wetting the bed. Kemmerich was one of Paul's best friends. He wanted to become woodsmen when he got older. He was the first to die after sustaining an injury to his leg. Kat was my favorite character because he was like father to those boys just out of high school.

He always told them jokes to comfort them and to take their simple minds off the war. In the novel all the characters wanted one thing, to escape the horrors of the war and to get on with their lives. None of them get what they want. All of them die and do not get what they desired.

All the characters changed in the same ways because they were all in the same situation. The main characters were all interesting in their own ways. I personally liked them because they had the courage to go to war defending their country and encounter new experiences, even if those experiences were not so comforting. The most important conflict in the novel was when Paul was fighting a French soldier and killed him in the trenches. Paul soon was eaten alive by his guilty conscience and begged forgiveness from the dead soldier. While looking through the soldiers wallet Paul discovered pictures of the soldiers family.

Paul told the dead soldier he would give the dead soldier his twenty years of life. Then he could go and be with them instead of laying dead in the trenches of the front line. This is when Paul finally realized how real this war was. A group of recent high school graduates joined the German Army of World War I, after hearing a speech from their teacher. Soon after joining they are shipped off to training camp where they encountered Corporal Himmelstoss, a brutal drill Sargent. He drills them and abuses the boys till they decide to get revenge.

The way they went about their revenge was they waited in the woods with a blanket and threw it over the corporal's head and clobbered him with their fists. They then went to war and thrown into situations they were not prepared for. Kemmerich was the first to die. When this happened it showed them that they were vulnerable and it could happen to them, too. Soon they were sent to the front line, Corporal Himmelstoss joined the men and attempted to boss them around.

He did manage to get Tjaden and Kropp in trouble for becoming rebellious. The whole troop spent their time fighting and ended up far behind enemy lines. Everyone started to die one by one. While at battle Paul kills a French soldier and has a crisis of conscience.

He begged the soldier for forgiveness. Later Paul and Kropp, the remaining members of their squad were reassigned to supply duty at camp. While at the camp they were both moderately injured and shipped out on a train to a hospital. Kropp's injury was worse than thought to be and his leg was amputated. Paul returned to the front line to fight. While there he met up with Kat.

Throughout their struggles at the front line Kat sustains a shin wound. Paul tried to carry him to a medic, but while in the process Kat catches a splinter in the head and dies. Paul, recovering from gas poisoning, is killed. All Quiet On The Western Front was told in fist person until Paul dies when it is told in third person.

The point of view has a major effect on the story because the reader knows Paul's hardships and triumphs, which would not be know if it was told by another party. Also, the first person perspective give the thoughts and feelings of all the other men in the squad. The tone and the mood of All Quiet On The Western Front was sorrow and pity. This is thought because the novel is written from an anti-war point of view. The tone and mood is also sad, because the main characters all die and don t get a real chance at life. Their lives were cut by untimely deaths.

The theme of the novel is the destruction of war and the pain it causes. When Paul comes back from leave he starts having second thoughts about the war and what he is doing in the middle of this big mess. He also believes that the men he is fighting are just the same he is but in different uniforms. The significance of the title All Quiet On The Western Front is that the western front, located in Germany, has been silenced because all the soldiers have fought to death and the battle field has been silenced.