This paper explains that murder has a profound affect on man as depicted in Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western
Front" when the protagonist Paul Baumer, gradually moving from an idealistic German student to an embittered and realistic young man forced to both see and perpetuate senseless carnage on men, forgets the reason for hating. The author points out that trapped in the mud of the no-man's land, Paul has his
illusions shattered fairly quickly, though he still seems to cling to the belief that there can still be gentleness and beauty in the world. The paper relates that, although Paul has been responsible for men's deaths before, he never witnessed the exact moment that they stopped breathing, until he stabbed a Frenchman in a trench; even after the man has finally died, Paul cannot find his way back to total
sanity.