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One way that Paul changes is that his patriotism towards his country about war decreases. Paul is sitting with his men around a fire picking off lice and comparing them before throwing them in the fire. Muller starts to ask others what they would do if and when the war is over. After dwelling on the topic for a while they realized the younger men do not know how to do anything but fight. They joined the war at such a young age that they did not get a chance to explore anything else. "'The war has ruined us for everything. '" At the beginning of the novel he is excited about defending his country and destroying the enemy, but after having interaction with soldiers from the opposing side he realizes that they are all the same.
They are just soldiers fighting for their countries and eager to get home. Paul's experience in combat changes his thoughts of war. Because of this, he gains the ability to reflect on the events that happen. His own ideas of war changes when he first witnesses the ugly truth of war. Paul's first experience in combat reveals to him that everything he was taught as a young recruit are lies. This causes him to make his own conclusions and thoughts about the war.
As the war goes on, Paul realizes more and more about the reality of the situation that he is in. Paul loses his innocence and childhood during the war; as a result, he becomes a man. In chapter seven, there is a scene where Paul, Leer, Kropp, and Tjaden swims. Three French women walk on the river bank. Paul and the others make hand motions with a loaf of bread and spoke in broken French.
They make plans to meet the girls later that night. "We call out to them that we would like to come; sometimes when the guards cannot see us... we assure them that we will bring some with us... and other tasty bits too. " (Remarque 145) Through this trade, Paul uses the women for his urges. Before the war Paul would never sleep with woman that he just met. He would never give away his dignity especially for something like this, whether his testosterone levels were high or not. The war takes control of Paul completely and he can no longer survive without it.
Paul finds himself in his room and starts looking around at his possessions. He realizes that he misses reading and remembers the joy that once filled him as he used to sit down to read his "collected works." He tries to find inspiration from his books, however as he starts to skim through some of them, they don't appeal to him the way that they used to before the war. "I take one of the books... I put it away and take out another... words -- they do not reach me... nevermore. " (Remarque 173) After experiencing the hardships that come with war, nothing seems to inspire him anymore.
At the front, he is forced to think about war and nothing else. Now that he is back in his environment and he has nothing but time on his hands, he does not know what to do anymore. His life used to revolve around the war, but now that he is on break, he comes home with all this horrible knowledge and looks at life in a completely different way. The longer Paul is involved in the war, the more it separates him from the life that he had before he enlisted. When the men return, he finds Kat, Albert, Tjaden, and Muller. He feels uncomfortable around them, but is unsure as to why.
He gives his mother's jam and potato-cakes to them. Kat gives him praises on his mother's cakes, and Paul feels close to crying. He is blue but he feels that for the first time since before his leave, he is where he belongs. "I could almost weep. I can hardly control myself any longer. but it will soon be all right again back here with Katzinsky and Albert. This is where I belong. " (Remarque 201) He is at a point in his life where his family just does not understand him anymore.
They do not know what it feels like to live in such poor conditions without any family or to do ridiculous things in order to prepare for the war. They do not understand what it is like to go out onto the front and kill people. Paul realizes that the men that he shoots are not really his enemy. They are just like him, a person who just wants to fight for his country.
In chapter five, Baumer and his friends have a discussion about what their plans are after the war. They agree that the war has changed them, that they are no longer the young men that they once were. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war. " (Remarque 88) This shows that Baumer feels much older. He realizes the war has changed him.
The things he has experienced in the war are irreversible. He is no longer a mere boy anymore, but a soldier instead. Baumer is considered a veteran; he is mature now. His youth is stolen when he joins the war. The death he encounters during the war cannot be escaped. The death of his friends, the death of his comrades, and the death of his enemies, have in-turn, brought the death of his youth.
Many stories have been told and written about the life experiences of one of the most devastating wars of all time, World War I. Throughout the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer's inner personality appears to contrast with the way the war forces him to act and feel. Paul becomes unable to imagine a future without the war. He no longer pauses to mourn fallen friends and loses his ability to speak to his family or other civilians. War can change any man, but enlisting at such a young age can morally corrupt a man because he has nothing else but the war... Without morals, there is nothing.
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Research essay sample on War Has Changed Experience In Combat Paul
