Remarque’s text places strong emphasis on comradeship. The first word of the book is “we…” Baumer describes his friends and the conditions they had to endure during the war before he tells us anything about himself. Comradeship develops into an unmistakably central theme during the text. The only thing that keeps Baumer sane during the fighting is the friendships that he has with some of his fellow soldiers. Kat is particularly important to him, and when he is killed, it is a great blow to Baumer, who begins to mentally and emotionally fall apart.
During the early parts of the text, the uniqueness of Baumer stands out, but by the end of the text his uniqueness is over run by the mass devastation of war. He becomes more distressed and disillusioned by the war as each of his friends die. He has lost all sense of security, as he is left to fend for himself in a world of violence and death which he has grown to know and cope with so well. The theme of comradeship has been explored deeper than Baumer wishes to acknowledge. His initial values have been devastated by the harsh new environment that he has enlisted himself into. Friends dying in his arms from wounds that could only be seen first hand to be believed, and the youth of his country dying like flies in a world they know nothing about.
In the beginning of the book Baumer has personal and unique emotions that show the vividness of his experiences. By the end of the book Baumer is numb and indifferent to his feelings, his life and those around him.
“I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope…” (Page 191)
Baumer shows us now the destructiveness of the war on the common soldier’s spirit.
The destructiveness of the war stands out as a major theme in the text, and is highlighted by the characters actions and speech. Coupled with the physical ruin is the destruction of the spirit of the soldiers; totally drained of emotions, they become
self-centred and thoughtless, almost animal-like. Baumer and his friends are no different; they quickly grow disillusioned with the brutality of fighting and sick over the losses they must endure.
“If your own father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him.” (Page 78)
The waste of human life is inevitable in organised wars. Throughout the novel, the death and destruction caused by battle is clearly depicted. Baumer and his colleagues battle day and night in a bloodbath often caused by their own infantry. Human experience plays a considerable part in the many components of the war. Many soldiers become natural killers, whilst others turn to jelly, weeping in the corner of a bomb shelter, too afraid to move into the open air where the scent of blood is heavy.
“If it were simply a mistake in aim no one would say anything, but the truth is that the barrels are worn out. The shots are often so uncertain that they land within our own lines. Tonight two of our men were wounded.” (Page 69)
Essentially the closing moments of the text, describing Baumer’s death, symbolize more than the death of one German soldier, it represents the hopelessness and meaningless of war. Baumer’s death was as void of importance as every soldier’s on the battle field, as men died they were piled into shell craters to clear the path for the healthy and mobile in order for them to make it to another location.
The army mail stated that day, “There was nothing new to report on the Western Front”
