All Quiet on the Western Front

By: Hank Ahrenholz

In the book All Quiet on the Western Front,  the author has many main characters. This book is a war novel that is based on a real war but still uses made up characters and other made up details. She gives them all different characteristics and describes each one of them differently. The ways that the characters are throughout the book will change as the book goes on.

Paul is the main character and the narrator of the entire book. When you read through the book you will be looking at the war through the eyes of Paul Baumer. When Paul is first drafted into the war he thinks that the war will be fun and none of his friends or him will die. Paul thinks that the war will just be a fun time with his friends. Paul’s view of the war changes as the war goes on. He starts seeing more people dying and he starts to wonder why he even went there.

Paul becomes one of the most experienced in his group after many of them die or get sent home. He sees how young the fresh recruits are and starts to think that the Germans are losing the war. Paul goes through hard things like seeing his friends be blown up and having to kill people at point blank. Paul knows how the war works and knows what to do on the front but the young recruits are just being killed because they do not have any common sense. He goes through huge changes as he goes through the war, and comes home and goes back to the war. He goes through many changes physically and emotionally. He will notice that he has to become a totally different person.

Another main character is Kemmorik. He is the leader of the squad that Paul is in. He is a strong member of the squad because he has been in the war for a very long time. He has to tell the men that everything that they have learned will be forgotten. If they follow what they have learned they will probably be shot. If they listen to what their leader is saying they will have a good chance of surviving. Paul and Kemmorik both believe in chance. They say there is a chance that they be hit by a mortar but they will have to trust their luck. If they don’t believe in their luck they will not survive at the front.

Kemmorik also tells Paul and his squad that they will need to stay in the war and help each other out. He knows how the war works and how the enemies work. Kemmorik has to help Paul and his class make it through the war. Paul and Kemmorik will see how each man works and they strengths and weaknesses that each man has. He will have to encourage each man and tell them that the war will be over soon if all of them stay and fight.

This book is a good book because of what you can learn from the characters. They start as young recruits and have to learn how to do things that they have never seen before and also will show you how to overcome obstacles in your way through life. The plot of this story will always keep you into the story. Wherever you leave off you will always be wondering what happens next in the story. The plot also will keep you thinking what happened to him or what will happen next. The characters all have different characteristics and different ways of acting. Throughout the whole story you will see how these characters act. You can’t always predict what they characters will do in different situations. This book will keep your attention from the first cover to the back page.