Paul Baumer is the protagonist in All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque. Paul changes his values throughout the novel as a result of having to adapt in order to survive. As Baumer struggles to survive the war, he transforms as shown by his thoughts, actions, and the conversations that he contributes in.
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.
For the most part, Paul at least outwardly appears to have adopted the war mindset. His actions are very much those of the typical soldier. For example, Paul, like all the other soldiers, will do anything he can for food. He is well accustomed to relieving himself out of doors: "Here in the open air though, the business is entirely a pleasure. I no longer understand why we should always have shied at these things before. They are, in fact, just as natural as eating and drinking" (8). Most of all, he values his survival above social customs: "We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important for us. And good boots are scarce" (21). For Paul, as for most soldiers, the rules of normal, polite society simply do not apply at the front. In the time between Paul's volunteering for the war and the beginning of the book, he has changed. For all the physical evidence, he is a common foot soldier.
use nature as the judge to condemn war, along with shocking imagery, so that his
Paul Bäumer's leave from the war is an opportunity for him to see life removed from the harshness of war. As he makes the journey home, the closer he gets the more uncomfortable he feels. He describes the final part of his journey, "then at last the landscape becomes disturbing, mysterious, and familiar." (154) Rather than being filled with comfort at the familiarity of his homeland, he is uneasy. War has changed him to the extent in which he can no longer call the place where he grew up home. Bäumer visits with his mother and recognizes that ideally this is exactly what he wanted. "Everything I could have wished for has happened. I have come out of it safely and sit here beside her." (159) But ultimately he will decide that he should have never gone on leave because it is just too hard to be around his family and see how different he has become. Bäumer finds that it is easier to remain out on the war front than return to his family.
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque reveals a dimmer sense of the cost of war. The main character in the book, German soldier, Paul Baumer, embodies the cost of war before he reaches his ultimate fate. The tactics and weapons used in World War 1 were more advanced compared to the past as a result of the industrial revolution. Germany was forced to fight a two-front war and this intensified the losses suffered by soldiers like Paul and the other men in the Second Company (Gomez 2016, German Strategy for a Two-Front War – Modern Weapons: War and the Industrial Revolution). Remarque’s observations that he shares with readers are not to World War 1 because it portrayed not only the physical but mental consequences of combat. Regardless of what era of war soldiers were involved in they were the ones who paid the price for facing so much death.
Paul and his company were once aspiring youth just graduating school thinking about having a wonderful life. Sometimes things don’t always play out the way you want. The effects of war on a soldier is another big theme in the novel. Paul describes how they have changed and how death doesn’t affect them anymore. “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defen...
The emotions of the average young man are lost at war as their entire lives are put into perspective. Paul's young adulthood is lost and he does not feel shame in frivolous things any longer. His emotions are not the only thing he loses, as he also disconnects from his past, present and future.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
The soldiers forget about the past, with good food and rest. Paul contemplates why they forget things so quickly; he thinks that habit helps eradicate memory. When one good thing happens, everything else is forgotten. The men turn into “wags” and “loafers” while resting. They cannot burden themselves with the emotions from the consequences
Today, America is plagued with eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Compulsive Eating Disorders. Each has its own characteristics that distinguish the illness yet there are some similarities that they also share. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, as with most mental illnesses, eating disorders are not caused by just one factor but by a combination of behavioral, biological, emotional, psychological, interpersonal and social factors. Shockingly, they also report that in the United States, there are as many as 10 million females and 1 million males that are battling with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. Additionally, another 25 million are struggling with binge eating disorders (www.NationalEatingDisorders.org). Typically, psychological factors such as depression and low self-esteem contribute to eating disorders...
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that takes you through the life of a soldier in World War I. Remarque is accurately able to portray the episodes soldiers go through. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to show the great change war has evolved to be. From lining your men up and charging in the eighteenth century, to digging and “living” in the trenches with rapid-fire machine guns, bombs, and flame-throwers being exposed in your trench a short five meters away. Remarque makes one actually feel the fun and then the tragedy of warfare. At the beginning of the novel Remarque gives you nationalist feelings through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war Remarque shows how pointless war really is. This is felt when everyone starts to die as the war progresses.
People who have actually been through war know how horrible it is. Society on the other hand, while it believes it knows the horrors of war, can never understand or sympathize with a soldier’s situation. The only people who can understand war is those who have been through it so they can often feel alone if they are out of the military. Paul cannot even give a straight answer to his own father about his dad’s inquiries about war. Paul’s dad does not understand that people who have been in the war can in no way truly express the horrible things that that have seen and experienced. Nor can Paul fit in with the society who does not understand him. Paul and so many others were brought into the war so young that they know of nothing else other than war. Paul held these views on society as he said, “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;-the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall in to ruin.
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a fear of being overweight which results in becoming exceedingly thin. (guide) People with anorexia go to an extreme in abusing the way they diet, over exercise, and purge. When looking for symptoms in anorexia it is slightly hard to tell, for many times people keep their disorder a secret. Once someone starts undergoing this process, people sometimes gain weight rather than lose, which also initiates them to lose more weight. During the period of growth and maturation, anorexia leads to somatic and psychological development and which leads to serious health issues. (journal research) Although many don’t see what is happening, over time they are sev...
After reading the case study related to this assignment and other related articles and talking to co-workers, I realized there are many around us that ethical principle were somehow violated on them. Despite most nurses’ best efforts to make ethical decisions; they might not be able to make the right decision. As it was mentioned in the case study, nurses might feel their job will be jeopardized if they go against higher authorities’ will. If they lose their job, they cannot be useful for themselves or for other patients. This problem takes me back to the title of section three of doing the right thing, “if we know what is right, can we do it?... in properly ordered soul, reason will be on control and passion will be under control”(n.d.). It
Anorexia nervosa is a new disorder affecting the state of mind, and it is characterized by the actions taken to lose weight for the sake of a better physical appearance. The disorder is strictly psychological and aims to achieve self-acceptance, and pleasing oneself with a thin body image that is indeed unhealthy and dangerous to ones life. People affected with this disease have such a distorted perception of themselves that they cannot help but see their body as fat when in reality they are not. The perception of oneself as fat, leads people with anorexia nervosa to lose as much weight as they can, by limiting the intake of the food. This psychological condition is so strong that ...