Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

WWI a war that killed seventeen million men, wounded twenty million more and physically and mentally destroyed the lives of countless men that suffered the rest of their lives from traumatic events that stated place in WWI.
Erich Remarque brilliantly brings the tragedy into focus for the new generations in his historical novel All Quiet on the Western Front a book about physical and mental battles fought along the trenches of WWI. The story revolves around the early nineteen hundreds a group of young German men who will all join the war after being urged by one of their high school teachers to pursue in being patriotic to their country. The story starts out with nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his young comrades he went to highschool with, they enjoy the leftover rations from fallen soldiers who have died on the front. One of the first to die from their high school classmates and many more to come is Joseph Behm because the death of this
young man the rest of Paul and his comrades despise their schoolmaster Kantorek for pushing them into the horrific reality of war. Paul and his friends go visit a long time childhood friend by the name of Franz Kemmerich suffering from gangrene. Paul and his friends visit Kemmerich who has lost his leg due to a grenade, Paul sees that Kemmerich appears iller than he thought.
Kemmerich soon realizes his leg has been amputated and has accepted his fate but still has a hard time accepting the cold suppressing truth he may die. Paul tries to cheer his friend up but cannot do so, Kemmerich begins to weep and solemnly gives his possessions away including his boots to Muller a hardheaded practical young man also a close classmate to Paul before the war began. In following we are introduced to Stanislaus Katczinsky also known as Kat, a forty year old man with a “sixth sense” that can help him sense out food as well as bombardments on the front, also introducing Himmelstoss a un-commissioned prick strict former drill sergeant of Paul Baumer’s group. Paul’s group endures hard military labor from Himmelstoss as time passes during the training the young group of men form a grudge against Himmelstoss especially Tjaden for all the hell Himmelstoss put the young men
through.
Kat’s sixth sense of smell helps Paul and other men get to the front to lay barbed wire, as he senses an attack. New recruits come and help reinforce the second company, Paul and his comrades began to feel like “Grizzled veterans” because most of the new recruits are of the age seventeen. [[Kat gives some of the new recruits beans, warning next time they need to bring tobacco as a payment for food. Kat believes that if everyone in the war got the same food and pay the war would be done and over with. ((Tjaden excitedly reports Himmelstoss is arriving to the front. Tjaden is excited for revenge on Himmelstoss for the unnecessary punishments against him such as for being a bed wetter because of bad health, the young men of Paul’s friends plotted revenge on Himmelstoss, one night Paul and his friends anonymously beat Himmelstoss coming back from a tavern late at night (Remarque)
The second company was assigned to lay barbed wire on the front, the men lay it down Paul hears a geese cackle nearby, Kat explains how to distinguish which guns are being fired by the sound of the blast, english batteries began firing earlier than usual the men of the bombardment take cover, huddling there bodies in the earth for the protection.((( On the front, men transform from soldiers into human animals such as dropping to the ground from a shell without even knowing there was a shell fired in their direction.((( The soldiers carried wire and iron rods to the front, after laying it they try to get some rest before the trucks arrive to pick them up again. Kat’s prediction on the bombardments were correct and the men cover from the shelling as the shells fall near them, Paul protects a young recruit from shelling fragments by placing his helmet over his head ,after the shelling the young recruit notices that he has defecated his pants and becomes embarrassed, Paul explains mostly every new recruit has had this problem at first, he instructs the young man to take off his underwear and throw them away. The men hear the whining shrieking of wounded horses. Deterring, a close friend of Paul in the second company is a young farmer with a wife back home that loves horses. He is very affected by the shrieking of the wounded horses and begs the other men to shoot them out of their misery. He believes using horses in war is “vilest baseness”. ((As the trucks head back a flurry of bombs land around them the men take cover in a nearby graveyard. Paul, Kat, Kropp and another soldier take cover in a nearby shell hole, they put on their gas masks until the air is clear after the firing stops. Paul, Kropp, and Kat crawl out of the shell hole and notice a young recruit with a wound showing his bones splintering out of his hip. Kat believes it would be merciful to end his life before he’s in agonizing pain they agree knowing he will not be able to heal from this wound. Before they put the young recruits life to an end the other men start to emerge from their covers.