All Quiet on the western front :: essays research papers

All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated by capital of Minnesota Baumer. He is a young man of nineteen who fights in the German army on the French front in World contend I. Unlike most during that time period, Paul and several of his friends and classmates from school joined the army voluntarily. They joined aft(prenominal) listening to nationalistic speeches told to them by their schoolmaster, KantorekBut after experiencing ten weeks of atrocious basic training at the hands of the small-minded, vindictive Corporal Himmelstoss and the inconceivable cruelty of life on the front lines. Paul and his comrades actualise that the ideals that made them enlist are merely empty clichs. They no longer believe that war is magnificent or respectable, and they live in unceasing corporal terror that each day that goes may be their last. When Pauls company receives a short reprieve after two weeks of fighting at the front lines, only eighty workforce of the original 150-man company return f rom the front. The cook , Ginger, doesnt want to give the survivors the rations that were meant for the dead men He insists that he is only allowed to distribute single rations and that the dead soldiers rations will simply have to go to waste but eventually gives in. Paul and his friends visit Franz Kemmerich, a agent classmate who has recently had a leg removed after contracting gangrene. Kemmerich is in the process of dying, and Mller, another former classmate, wants Kemmerichs yellow boots for himself. Paul doesnt consider Mller insensitive because like the other soldiers, Mller simply realizes sensibly that Kemmerich is no longer in need of his boots. Not very long after this meeting, Paul returns to Kemmerichs bedside just as he is about to die. At Kemmerichs request, Paul takes his boots to Mller. Twenty-five younger men arrive as reinforcements. Paul believes Kat is the most resourceful soldier he knows, always able to scrounge up food. The men learn Himmelstoss is plan o f attack up to the front. Tjaden especially hates the Corporal because of his cruel punishment for Tjadens bed-wetting problem. For vengeance, Paul and his friends ambushed and beat Himmelstoss before they left for the front. The soldiers are sent to put up barbed telegram at the front. At night, during an artillery bombardment, the soldier dive for cover. The men set up the wire. Soon the artillery attacks them. Several men are hit, as vigorous as horses.