happy happy joy joy
...good thing that has come out of the war, and his intimacy with Kat as the two cook a goose borders on the homoerotic. Paul also exhibits increasingly anti-nationalistic sentiments as the novel progresses, and his recognition of the arbitrariness of war allows him to grow closer to the Russians in an adjacent prison camp, and to the Frenchman he kills in a shell-hole. Paul occasionally comments on the impotence of words in describing the brutality of war. He also laments how civilians will never be able to understand the soldier's plight. We may assume that Remarque felt the same way, but decided that by writing about WWI, he might overturn these theories and relate his own alienated war experiences. Kantorek: Although Kantorek, the former schoolteacher of Paul and his friends, figures in only one present-tense scene, he casts a long shadow over the novel. He represents nationalism, the ideology of unswerving dedication to one's own country that swept Europe before and during WWI, at its worst. His patriotic sentiments and bullying forced Paul and his classmates--what he proudly calls the "'Iron Youth'"--into volunteering for the war. Paul gains some measure of revenge when he sees that Kantorek has been enlisted in the war; at least Kantorek must now fight and possibly die for the war he has helped promote. Corporal Himmelstoss: Like Kantorek, Himmelstoss is in just a few scenes, but he is an important representative figure. As Paul's friends see it, Himmelstoss epitomizes the way men with little power otherwise--Himmelstoss was a postman before the war--exploit whatever power they gain in the military. A ruthless disciplinarian in the training platoon Paul and his classmates originally joined, Himmelstoss delights in humiliating the inferior-ranking soldiers, especially Tjaden. However, even a coward like Himmelstoss can be redeemed by the camaraderie of war; after he is brought up to fight and has his first experience in the trenches, he makes up with the men he previously punished and insulted. Stanislaus Katczinsky: Kat, as he is known, is the wise, 40-year-old unofficial leader of Paul's company. A peacetime cobbler, Kat has a knack for making shrewd trades and scrounging up food in seemingly impossible situations. He also seems to have some sympathy with Communism, although this is not well developed in the novel. Though half his age, Paul seems to be closest with Kat of all the soldiers. ...