Why did paul baumer enlist

Katczinsky, or Kat, was soon shown to be a master scavenger, being able to provide the group with food or virtually anything else; on this basis Paul and him grew quite close.

Kantorek has written and sent a letter in which he calls his past students, now soldiers, "Iron Youth. The old classmates talk about how they had idolized Kantorek while they were in school; now they hate him, blaming him for their misery.

After all, he was the one who talked them into joining the military. They also blame him for the death of Josef Behm, one of their classmates who was the first of them to be killed. Guards wielding billy clubs force Elie's group through a selection of those fit to work and those who face a grim and improbable future. Elie and his father Chlomo lie about their ages and depart with other hardy men to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. Elie's mother and three sisters disappear into Birkenau, the death camp.

After viewing infants being tossed in a burning pit, Elie rebels against God, who remains silent. Every day, Elie and Chiomo struggle to keep their health so they can remain in the work force. The greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is a novel that depicted the hardships of a group of teenagers who enlisted in the German Army during World War 1.

Enlisting right out of high school forced the teens to experience things they had never thought of. From the life of a soilder on the front line to troubles with home life, war had managed to once again destroy a group of teenagers. Throughout the novel, we saw the men of the Second Company adapt to the harsh conditions of war and fighting on the front line. The first instance was the men going to relieve the front line. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. It tells the story of a German schoolboy, Paul Baumer, and a group of his classmates, who journey from fantasies of heroic glory to the real horror of actual soldiering.

Their journey is a coming of age tale that centers on the consternation of war and emphasizes the moral, spiritual, emotional, and physical deterioration suffered by the young soldiers. He and his classmates charge fresh out of high school into military service, hounded by the nationalist ranting of a feverish schoolmaster, Kantorek.

Though not all of them want to enlist, they do so in order to save face. Their first stop is boot camp, where life is still laughter and games. This is their last vestige of boyhood. War slowly begins to strip away the ideals these boy-men once cherished.

Paul did not join the military because he wanted to,no, he joined the military because he was strongly urged to join by Kantorek. He met some great friends in …show more content… Paul was known by his friends as a good and loyal man, and the camaraderie he had with his friends meant everything to him while out on the front.

He was a very calm and logical soldier who had a very unique take on the war; Paul believed that the most highly ranked officials in the government should fight in wars.

He was a very innocent young man before the war, for he did not lose his virginity until wartime to a prostiture in a brothel. The war changed Paul's life. Paul had to see all of his friends die during the war.

He had to kill a French man to save his own life. Paul had to witness the death of several young soldiers and the death of most of his friends. During an attack he was hit by a shell while trying to evacuate a village and suffered a broken leg and a wounded arm. Never married, Paul longed for a real relationship when he got out of the war. Sadly Paul's dream for a wife could never come true.

Survivors include his mother, who has cancer, his father, and his sister. Memorial contributions may be made to the Baumer Foundation. Arrangments are being handled by Kantorek Funeral Home in. Get Access. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army. Paul frequently considers the past and the future from the perspective of his entire generation, noting that, when the war ends, he and his friends will not know what to do, as they have learned to be adults only while fighting the war.

The longer that Paul survives the war and the more that he hates it, the less certain he is that life will be better for him after it ends.

The war destroys Paul long before it kills him.