Haie Westhus

A powerful young peat-digger who briefly sees the army as an escape from brutal civilian labor.

What they want

To find a life less punishing than peat cutting, even if the army is the only alternative he can imagine.

The book

All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque, 1929

A nineteen-year-old soldier learns that the language of glory has nothing to do with the daily reality of the First World War.

Spoiler-free

Haie's size and rough humor make him a vivid physical presence in the company.

His thought of remaining in the army shows how poverty can make even military discipline look preferable to civilian work.

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

Large buildHe is one of the group's strongest men.
Rough humorPhysical confidence shapes his manner.
Working-class futurePeat cutting gives him little to return to.
False opportunityThe army can look like advancement only because civilian choices are so narrow.

What happens to Haie WesthusHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Haie is gravely wounded and dies. His fate closes off the military career he briefly imagined.

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Henri Barbusse
The novelist of Le Feu — the Great War's first great trench book, written from the ranks at forty-one — and the standard both Céline and Hemingway measured war writing against.
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