All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is about a young German soldier Paul Baumer while he is in World War One.  While overall I can tell the book is meant to be focused on the anti-war perspective.  While all growing up, Paul's teachers encouraged him and his soon to be fellow comrades to become soldiers and fight for Germany.  All of his family and people back home don't understand what the soldiers go through on the front line.  Throughout the book, Paul more speaks of how his life has been stolen from him. Even though he may not be dead, all his comrades fighting with him are dieing and inside his soul is dieing away.  Even though he gets a chance to go back home on leave, Paul cannot seem to feel comfortable back at home.  He is losing his mother to cancer and he cannot connect with anyone back home. Even though he is still a teenager, he calls himself an old soldier and feels like he knows more than a 40 year old man that has not been apart of war. As time goes on in the book he learns that while at first he thought he had mortal enemies with the people he was shooting at, he is just like his enemy.  Both Paul and his enemy are humans fighting for their fatherland. This didn't really hit Paul until he was caught in a shell-hole where an enemy entered and he had to kill him with his bare hands.  It killed him inside to watch this man that he could relate to so much die in his arms because he killed him.  All Quiet on the Western Front is meant to give the feeling of what soldiers went through, still go through, and how it all affects them.  It also gives you a better understanding of how war is not always the right answer.