Paul says at the end “I am so alone and so without hope…” (295). Show the major events that caused Paul view himself in this way. Why did he feel this way? How did he battle this throughout the book? Did he win? Did he lose? Explain.
But Paul soon discovers war isn’t exciting or peaceful at all. He finds it to be harsh, traumatizing, and he forgets what home is like. He has to deal with the most gruesome things at the age of twenty. He no longer has the hope inside him like he did when he first enlisted. Paul Baumer has been at war for several years now. He had to leave his mother, father and sister behind but left with friends of his from school. Paul doesn’t mind war at first. He meets new friends to have by his side along for the experience. He finds it exciting to be out in the open with nature, having to only worry about himself and having friends to share the excitement with. When they’re done fighting for the day they go back to camp where it’s quiet and peaceful.
Franz, kemmerich, Paul’s friend from school, is on his death bed. “…We grew up together and that always makes it a bit different” (28-29). When Paul sees someone he knows dying right before his eyes, he starts to lose hope in himself. He begins to feel helpless. Paul is still just a boy and he doesn’t know why this is happening to him or Franz. He says: “The whole world ought to pass by this bed and say: “That is Franz Kemmerich, nineteen and a half years old, he doesn’t want to die. Let him not die!” (29).
Paul is let on leave. He walks into his home to the smell of potato-cakes and whortleberries. He looks up above him and sees his butterfly collection on the wall. His sister tells him their mother is in bed and probably has cancer again. “We might almost have known you were coming” (159). Paul goes up to see his mother and she asks, “sit here beside me” (159). “… Heinrich Bredemeyer… said it was terrible with the gas and all the rest of it” (161). Paul’s mother kept asking him if what Heinrich said was true. Paul didn’t want to frighten her or worry her so he said, “No mother, that’s only talk” (161). Night passes and Paul thinks, “I ought to have never come on leave” (185).
Somehow Paul falls in a shell-hole while out on the front line. So he doesn’t get shot at, he buries himself in the mud and plays dead. While waiting for it to be clear, a Russian walks up behind him and kicks his foot. “The man gurgles” (216). Paul is lying side by side with this man as if he was his own friend. He realizes that no matter what country you’re from or team you’re on, you still have a life with a family and kids. Paul gets his address and writes to his wife. “No doubt his wife still thinks of him; she does not know what happened” (222). This put a new perspective on things for Paul It traumatized him in a way of a lesson.
Paul feels he is without hope for the reason being: he lost a friend right in the beginning, when he went on leave he found out his mother had cancer, and he never would have thought he would help a Russian. Paul puts everyone in front of himself even at times when he should have put himself first Unfortunately Paul lost the battle of hope. It came to the end of Paul Baumer. “He fell on October 1918… turning him over one saw he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come” (296).
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