Paul Bäumer
The nineteen-year-old narrator whose education, friendships, and sense of the future are consumed by war.
To keep his friends alive and find some self that can exist after the war.
The book
At a glance
- Nineteen at enlistment
- German infantry
- Stanislaus Katczinsky
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freePaul enters the army directly from school and learns to measure life through food, shelter, shell sounds, and the presence of friends.
He is observant enough to understand much of what the war is doing to him, but understanding does not give him a route back to his former life.
How the book draws them
- Young face, old attentionHe is nineteen, but the front has made his attention guarded and practical.
- Sensory narratorHe records sound, earth, hunger, wounds, and weather before abstract ideas.
- Loyal friendHis strongest actions are acts of care for the men beside him.
- Estranged sonHe loves his family but cannot explain himself at home.
- Moral witnessDuval's death makes enemy humanity impossible to ignore.
- Voice under pressureHis calm account repeatedly approaches feelings he cannot fully name.
After Kat dies, Paul is the last of his school group alive. He dies in October 1918 on an otherwise quiet day, and the narration continues without his voice.
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