Analysis Of Paul Baumer's All Quiet On The Western Front

In “All quiet on the Western Front”, Paul Baumer says that war is a dehumanizing experience, however, there are many examples in this book that prove otherwise. Paul says he knows nothing of life but “despair, death, fear, and a fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow”(263). War, however cruel it may seem, actually makes soldiers more human. During the time Paul spent at training camp, Paul made “friends” with the Russians of the other side of the fence. Paul shared his cigarettes with the soldiers out of pity, because seeing those men standing there together starving, struck a chord with Paul. Paul realizes that even though he doesn’t know the men individually, in a way he knew them as a whole. Seeing the Russians