Remarque to represent the full war experience. Often in order to get a point across, authors will use symbols in their books. Remarque uses boots, potato pancakes, and books to represent the fact that war destroys everyone involved, whether they have died, or their loved died. And if the soldier somehow survived the war, their dreams would be crushed for the rest of their lives.
Remarque symbolizes the dehumanization that war causes by using boots. When a childhood friend “Kemmerich” is dying, Muller goes for his boots. The group claims “We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by" (24). The friends want to be strong for
Kemmerich, but they can tell that he will soon die, and “Though Müller would be delighted to have Kemmerich's boots, he is really quite as sympathetic as another who could not bear to think of such a thing for grief. He merely sees things clearly” (26). It is as if the soldiers don’t really realize what is happening to their friend. They just know that soon the boots will be available, and that they are nice boots. Remarque’s use of the boots shows how war can kill a soldier's morality by dehumanizing him.
Remarque uses the potatocakes to symbolize the sacrifice of the families. Paul goes home on leave and finds his family has cooked his favorite meal, potatocakes and whortleberries. Paul cannot enjoy this meal because he could tell that “the jar of whortleberries is the only one they have had for months, and that [his mom had] kept it for [him]; and the somewhat stale cakes that she [gave him] too. She must have got them cheap some time and