Task 2 Paul Baumer

Task 2 Paul Baumer

Paul Baumer is the main character in this book. This man was a high school student before joining the army. By being taught from his teacher that soldier would be a national hero and all the other positive aspects of the war, he was encouraged to join the army not only from others but also his will. There were also three students joined the army with him at the same time. After ten weeks training, they all changed a lot. Though there were only ten weeks, but in Baumer’s eyes, those days were even more worth than the past ten years in school. Baumer and his comrades in arms were sent to the front line of battle field after ten weeks of trainings. The conditions were poor in battle field. Normally soldiers could not get enough food or even a private space when dumping. At the beginning, Baumer complained this, but soon he got used to it. The worst condition was once soldiers on the field, they would never know whether they could make it through or not. Baumer found that the people around him just got fewer and fewer and everything happened on the front line was hard to bear. Sometimes they might get too dirty for them to tolerate thus the flees would be anywhere on the body; the supplies were not in time such that they got nothing to eat and had to fight against the cold weather at the same time; shouting and screaming were everywhere you could hardly tell whether it was from enemies or companions; all the ground was on fire filled with dead bodies and blood. Everything was horrible but unstoppable for Baumer. He felt sorrow and pain when he lost his close friend Franz Kemmerich, who left him first. When he saw people struggling crawling back to base and died in hospital, he could no more felt the pride teacher once told him but pain and death instead.

Front line was like a cage, and people inside became animals. So did Baumer. But it was lucky for Baumer because he got a chance to go home. However, when he got home, he could not feel love but questioning instead. People around him thought he was a coward and they laughed at his attitude of war. But he was only about 20 years old, all he did during these years was killing enemies. His life was meaningless. He was disappointed and distressed. Those people at back didn’t know the cruel of the war. So he decided to go back to the front line again. As he wished, he died eventually.

This is Paul Baumer, from an optimistic, patriotic and passionate person to a fear, distressed and meaningless soldier.