Throughout
Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front,
Paul slowly loses all of this hope he had ever had and realizes how he is truly
alone. He states “I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them
without fear” (pg.295), and then he just gives up. Many actions have led up to
this feeling, even though he has been trying to fight it.
Some of
the earliest signs of him losing hope was when he came back from the war. No
one could understand how he felt, even though they tried to. “I imagined leave
would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of
course that have changed in the interval. There lies a gulf between that time
and to-day. At that time I still knew nothing about the war, we had only been
in quiet sectors. But now I see that I have been crushed without knowing it. I
find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world. Some of these people
ask questions, some as no questions, but one can see that the latter are proud
of themselves for their silence; they often say with a wise air that these
things cannot be talked about. They plume themselves on it. I prefer to be
alone, so that no one troubles me. For they all come back to the same thing,
how badly it goes and how well it goes; one things it is this way, another
that; and yet they are always absorbed in the things that go to make up their
existence. Formerly I lived in just the same way myself, but now I feel no
contact here… what I mean.”(168-169) His father and all of the other men act
like they know what he has been through when truthfully they don’t. He is alone
and has no one to vent and open up to about everything he has seen. This causes
him to draw back and wish he was back with everyone else in the war.
As the
book progresses Paul starts to lose more and more hope. “To make matters worse,
we have to return almost all; of the new things and take back our old rags
again. The good ones were merely for the inspection.”(207) Even the officers have
given up hope. When the Kaiser comes to inspect, they give all the soldiers new
uniforms to hide how raggedy and awful they are, and to give the illusion that
there is hope for them to win the war. This also goes back to when Kat says, “You
take it from me, we are losing the war because we can salute too well.” (40)
They try to make everything look good to give everyone, including Paul, hope.
Everything is just a gimmick.
Paul
finally realizes he is alone when his only friend, who is more like a brother,
Kat dies. He states “Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them
move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle and I stand in
the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died.
Then I know nothing more.” (291) Paul has lost every bit of hope he had. That
even has caused him to give up. He realized that he isn’t scared anymore to
lose him life. Even though he has lost almost everything, he has gained some
attributes including companionship, leadership, and compassion, and that has
changed him forever. “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from
me, they can take nothing more.” (295) He is finished.
Throughout
the book Paul slowly realizes there is no hope for anyone. He had lost
everything, his friends, his relationship with his family, and even small
things like his enjoyment of words. He tried to fight the loss of hope but as
he matured through the war, he realized there was no hope left. He has decided
that since he has lost everything it is his turn to go, and he accepted the
loss with open arms.
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