How Has The War Changed Paul's Life

As the war changes so does the young and innocent mind of Paul Baumer. This is shown not only in his thoughts, but in the actions that he takes throughout the novel itself. Specifically, Paul’s mind changes because of his views on the war, how he witnessed the death of his classmates, and the battles that are fought change his personal view of life, and what it means to him as well as the war in itself.
One of the more obvious ways that the war had affected the conscience of Paul is shown later in the chapter nine when Paul is in a crater with the enlisted french man who is in the war. Paul stabs the man in the neck, and then realizes the consequences of his actions. He then writes a letter to the man’s family. In reflecting on his actions, Paul says “If only I had not lost my revolver I would have shoot him, stab him I can not” (Remarque pg. 221). When it comes to murdering a man, stabbing him is a more personal approach rather than placing a bullet in his cranium. This shows that Paul does not want to endure the war, rather he prefers to have it go away fast and painless.
Another example
As they perish in the war it is shown that Paul loses some of what makes him human as said in the book “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing no more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me”, (Remarque 295). With nothing to comfort Paul at the end of the war. It makes him say that he is now alone, and has nothing to give, and nothing can be taken from him, and earlier in the novel when Paul is sitting on the toilet with his friends socializing about the war. Just so they could stay sane throughout the