In Chapter 2 Paul feels utterly cut off from humanity; “our early life is cut off from the moment we came here,” Because of the war, he feels like he now has nothing. His relationship with his parents has weakened further, and he has no time for girlfriends or fun. He feels totally isolated and empty. His only feelings of love and loyalty are those that he shares with his friends and fellow soldiers and he tries to think the best of them.
In chapter five Paul and his friends continue to form an extremely close bond as we see the intensity of the soldiers’ friendships. They talk of what they would do if it was peace time. “well, there’d be women of course, eh?” However Haie cannot imagine himself as anything but a soldier. “If I were a non-com. I’d stay with the Prussians and serve out my time.” they can’t imagine themselves as anything but a soldier. In this chapter Remarque suggest that the solders would have never met each other and formed such a tight friendship if it wasn’t for the war. Paul marvels at the flood of emotion that he experiences while roasting the stolen goose with Kat. “We don’t talk much, but I believe we have more complete communion with one another than even lovers have.” Paul feels that him and Kat are extremely close, they know each other so well that they don’t need to talk. The bond between them is so strong. They feel in unison and are “so intimate that we do not even speak”. He and Kat would never have known one another in peacetime, but the war has brought their lives together. Remarque suggests that in peacetime social relationships can never reach the intimacy or intensity of soldier’s bonds.
In Chapter 8, Paul goes back home on leave, however there is a feeling of “strangeness”, he no longer feels at home in his family’s house. “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world.” He feels separated from the people who don’t understand the front. “Was it bad out there Paul?” Paul can’t put the experiences of the war front in to words. Nobody would understand what it is like. Without his comrades he is alone he cant talk about such things to anybody else.
His encounters with local people and memories of his past only make him miss his comrades, who are now the only people that he can fully trust. When Paul returns from his leave he is given some potato cakes made by his sick mother. He takes the cakes back to the front and shares them with his comrades knowing that his “mother cooked them herself and that she was probably in pain as she stood before the hot stove”. Some of the cakes were mouldy so he keeps them for himself and he gives the fresh ones to Kat and Kropp. These cakes are Paul’s greatest gift from his mother and it could be the last thing that he receives from her before she dies, but he still shares them with his comrades. He wants his comrades to have the best, he is happy to eat the mouldy cakes so that his comrades can have the fresh ones. This shows that he was exceptionally close to his comrades. He thought of his comrades before himself and was therefore happy to share something that meant a great deal to him.
Now back from his leave Paul is happy to be reunited with his soldier friends; they are the only people to whom he can now relate. He can talk about his feelings with them, and they always understand. However in chapter 9 when Paul is separated from them on the battlefield, he looses sense of direction and panics and is afraid he will die. But instead he hears the voices of his comrades which bring him back to reality; “I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness; I belong to them and they to me; we share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could burn my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saves me and will stand by me.” Their voices alone mean every thing to him, from this he gains enough self-control to save himself from the enemy troops that are passing by. However when an enemy soldier jumps into the shell hole with him, in total panic about the presence of the enemy, Paul stabs him. It is the first time that Paul has killed someone in hand-to-hand combat; he sees the enemy face to face and is forced to understand the true cost of taking another human being’s life. The solider does not die and Paul is forced to stay in the shell hole with the body. As he waits for him he tries to help him and bonds with him. He begs the enemy solider for his forgiveness “forgive me comrade” immediately he regrets what he has done. “Comrade, I did not want to kill you” Paul call the enemy his comrade as he knows that this solider is just like him and he feels guilty for having killed him.
The last chapter of the novel shows how Paul is now alone. His closest comrades have died “they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear” he feels that nothing more can be taken from him. His comrades who gave him strength have been taken away from him. His only friends who understood him, who meant so much to him have gone. He has nothing more to live for, so he gives up.
Comradeship is a very strong theme throughout the novel. The bond between comrades when they are at war is extremely important, we see this through Paul. When Paul is with his comrades he is no longer alone, his friends give him strength without his fellow comrades he wouldn’t be able to survive the war, it is his friends who keep him alive, who keep him fighting each day. Without them he would be nothing, they are what make his life worth. At war they have no one else to turn to and their comrades are the only ones who really know what it is like to be there, because of the situation they are in they grow very close. They always look out for each other and will do anything to protect each other. Remarque, presents comradeship throughout the novel in many different ways. He shows how close the comrades are they way they sit on the toilet together and play cards. He illustrates that they know each other so well that they know what each other are thinking and don’t need to talk as their bond is so strong between them. They care for each other and share things which mean so much to them. Their comrades mean every thing to them each other and without each other they are lost, they feel that there is nothing worse than being without their fellow comrades.
