The Two Sides of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front free essay sample

The Two Sides of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front There are figuratively two Paul Baumer’s in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Paul becomes a different person when he joins the army. Before the war, Paul went to school and wrote poetry and led the normal life of a teenager. When he enlists in the military, he remains the same person on the outside, but changes drastically on the inside. This change allows him to survive on the front but at the price of losing his innocence. Prior to the war, Paul remained an innocent little schoolboy. Paul wrote poems and short stories and loved to escape into the sheer beauty of nature. Paul lived in a time where the only people who understood how terrifying and unnatural the war was, were those who were fighting it. Paul just wanted to go along with all of his friends and joined the war thinking it would be heroic and manly. We will write a custom essay sample on The Two Sides of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Little did he know that the war would dictate how he would perceive everything. Paul quickly learns that in order to survive one must become and animal. One must revert back to their primal instincts otherwise they are no more than mincemeat. This regression into his animal instincts changes how Paul sees everything. But, underneath the uniform, he remains a child. â€Å"But when we go bathing and strip, suddenly we have slender legs again and slight shoulders. We are no longer soldiers, but little more than boys;†(29). Paul wants nothing more than to go back home and try to live a normal life. But, when he returns, he does not remember how to be a child again. He looks like a boy but has the war hardened skills and emotions of a veteran. He tries to escape into literature and nature as he used to, but he cannot. †I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books†(171). The war completely changes Paul’s life. He simply cannot live the way he used to. When Paul goes off to war, he becomes a different person. The war literally forces him to change into an emotionless killing beast. Paul must tap into his ancient primal instincts in order to survive. We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation†(113). Paul starts to realize this when he goes back home during his leave. He comes home to much praise from the citizens who used to refer to him as Paul but now refer to him as Comrade. He can only help but think that those citizens have no clue what they are talking about. They continuously ask questions without ever truly wanting the answers. They bombard him with questions almost as painful as the bullets that could end Paul’s miserable life in the blink of an eye. And Paul cannot bear these questions. He hates the war. He hates what the war he turned him into. When Paul returns to the front, he feels as though it has become his true home. At one point in the war, Paul finds himself trapped in a shell hole with a soldier from the other army. His instincts take control and, without thinking, he stabs the man. As the man slowly dies, Paul becomes attached to him in a way. He starts to understand that he has been pitted against another man just like himself for reasons that he does not even know. Forgive me comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert†(223). The war sucks Paul into an abyss of unhappiness the moment he arrives at the front. Paul hates the war with every fiber of his being and would give anything to have his old life back. The most painless moment of the war for Paul is the moment when it all finally comes to an end. Paul takes the only option he has left of escaping his misery. And that one option is death. Death puts Paul at peace with himself again. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the war divides Paul Baumer into two completely different people. Before the war, Paul was an average teenager with high hopes and huge dreams. Paul becomes an entirely different person when he joins the army. He becomes a war hardened, emotionless, beast trapped inside the body of a young boy. Paul recognizes this change and begins to hate both himself and the war. This change allows him to stay alive in the war. But, it also forces to Paul to abandon all of his feeling and emotions. Paul would rather not live at all than live like a monster.