In this
novel Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of a nineteen-year-old German boy faced with serving in World
War I. The main character Paul Baumer joins the army with three of his fellow classmates. After a couple weeks he befriends a man named Stanislaus Katczinsky or Kat. Kat, at the age of forty, is older and wiser to the ways of the world and looks out for his younger friends. Throughout the fighting Kat has proven himself to be very resourceful in finding needed food and other provisions. Remarque describes in great detail how life in the trenches was. There is never enough food, what bread the men are able to get has usually been nibbled on by rats. The
soldiers never have a chance to get a good night sleep, because in the back of their minds they know that an attack could occur at any
time. The bond between buddies is the only thing the soldiers have in the trenches to keep them going.
Day after day more soldiers are killed or
wounded. Through out the novel Remarque shows how the constant violence desensitizes the men and makes them indifferent. There is a brief period in the novel where Paul has a relationship with a girl and the terror and confusion of the war is put aside for a short time. At the very end Kat’s leg is wounded and Paul drags him to a medical unit. When they arrive, the orderly takes one look at Kat and declares him dead. Paul believes that his friend had only fainted but a bullet had gone through Kat’s skull as Paul was caring him. To emphasize how much war can harden and desensitize a person Remarque writes that Paul says "All is usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died".
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