Empire War Forums

Oh god, I’m having some serious trouble comprehending this post. Don’t be mad, I just can’t figure this out.

Duuude. Paul Bäumer is not a real character. Remarque merely wrote down his own memories of war, however none of the people in the book are real. The book's protagonist died in October 1918, shortly before the end of the war. The book is by no means a biography of any existing person and certainly not this flying ace you mentioned. In fact, it is regarded in Germany as one of the best anti-war books to have ever been written. It tells the story of a young soldier who signed up for the imperial army, like many other young people. He then gets to experience the horrors of war on the frontline, looses all of his friends one by one, and what not. The book depicts the decline in life's value and the false opinions of society. Actually, the title "All quiet on the western front" was the report handed over by the officers of that trench sector to their superiors on the day Paul Bäumer died. Death has become so ordinary and all value to life lost, hence the book's name. Just one more dead body among many. Read the book first for fuck's sake! It's pretty good actually.

Yes, death is ordinary. But ordinary young man doesn't mean you are "getting your ass in the trenches and constantly shoot and dodge artillery fire." Despite that it's fictional, that doesn't answer my fucking question even if I read this book. lmao

“Constantly shoot and dodge artillery fire”. It’s an exaggeration. Then guy’s cannon fodder, not fuckin’ B. J. Blazkowicz.