Tjaden

When we first meet Tjaden, he is in ecstasy over the excess food rations made available by the death of so many soldiers. The guy eats like a horse. Tjaden is a peer of main character Paul and is known for drinking away all of his life's problems. For all that he eats, he's very skinny. Back home he is a locksmith.  Tjaden is not a deep thinker. Tjaden has a uniquely strong defiant streak against authority and he clashes regularly with commandant Himmelstoss. Tjaden is a bed-wetter and Himmelstoss blames this on "laziness," but most likely, Tjaden can't help it. Tjaden is humiliated by being placed in the top bunk in basic training by Himmelstoss to drip on the poor guy below him (who's another bed-wetter). And then they reverse. Having received such treatment, it's no wonder that Tjaden is stoked when Himmelstoss is sent to the Front with them. The rules at the Front are different there is really no saluting a higher rank than yourself because there is much more to worry about in trench-warfare. Paul's friend ambush Himmelstoss on his way home from a pubLater, and Tjaden is very happy about this. In Chapter Five, when Himmelstoss accosts the group sitting in a field, Tjaden doesn't stand or salute. Tjaden tells Himmelstoss he's a "dirty hound" and, when Himmelstoss asks for a sign of respect, Tjaden, sitting, tilts left and farts. Threatened with a court-martial, Tjaden doesn't care. But he does hide. The other guys feign ignorance of his whereabouts and Himmelstoss is frustrated. But he is eventually caught and court-martialed. At the field tribunal, Tjaden tells of the bed-wetting and Himmelstoss's abuses. The judge, one of the few rational authority figures in the book, gives a much-reduced sentence and a wrist-slap to Himmelstoss: "He understands it all right though, and lectures, Himmelstoss, making it plain to him that the front isn't a parade-ground."
Comfort food continually drives Tjaden's mood throughout. In fact, it is his offering of army bread across the river to the French women that allows them to cross the river and get a bit of lovin'. Tjaden's death comes after long battle marches, when he and his comrades are emaciated, gray, listless, and lifeless. Food is life for Tjaden. When it is scarce, he loses his strength and power.