18th Century!!!!!!!!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I565MgMODXoZ5BMcgcMt-YhcF4a2KTmJmxEbc7nEkI0/edit

Five Points and an afterthought.

1. War is not something to be glorified.
2. The war desensitized  the young men to a level that should not have occurred.
3. Those that survived may feel they would have been better off dead.
4. The book ends at the same moment Paul's life ends. It purposefully does not portray Paul as a martyr or show that Pauls contributions to the war made any difference whatsoever. Paul's whole participation in the war in the grand scheme of things meant nothing.
5.I feel the book was an important read and unusually relevant to the day and age we live in.


That being said, I am glad I read the book. But do not care to read it again. Though I am no veteran and cannot even pretend to be from a military standing, I felt the book got to real at points. It showed me that one can enter a conflict innocent and throughout the course of it become a new individual walking in between two worlds.  There was no glory in what he had to do, and his whole presence in the war had no effect on the eventual outcome of the war. Yet he was forced to endure and watch as the world he loved was made to fall. The war made him indifferent to it. Something I don't care to ever experience. Paul see's people dying that he had known his whole life and shows no sorrow that they have fallen. He doesn't seem to care that his friends have all died. "Such is the life of a soldier" he even says at one point.

In closing, this book scared the crap out of me, and removed a great deal of the romanticism I had previously held about being sent off to war. Also, appreciating the friends I've got in Afghanistan a little more.

Kat the Awesome

Kat is the oldest member of the group forty years of age at the start of the novel, he is also the most experienced member of the group.  A Cobbler in civilian life (Shoe maker), and the primary mentor of the group. He shows his charisma by persuading the cook to allow his small squad to eat the food that was rationed for the hundred some men when only forty had arrived to eat.  He has a sixth sense for finding food that the other boys very much appreciate him for. In one incident he finds four boxes of lobster and another time he finds some geese for the Men to cook and eat.

 Kat is the most positive member of the group, and the boys generally look up to him. He leads his men by example and gets angry with them when they have a negative outlook on their disposition. Kat is a survivor.

Kat is practical and humane, in one incident he finds a man who had his thighs blown off, he was in intense pain and Kat was the one that suggested that they do a mercy killing by putting the man out of his misery rather than sit in the hospital bed for three days dyeing from a slow grueling death.  He is forced to stop from the mercy killing by the return of the other soldiers from the front.

 His death is exceptionally traumatic to Paul as it is that point in the novel where Paul gives up on life. Shrapnel from a mortar explodes wrecking Kats shin. Paul realizing that Kat is hurt tries to carry him back to camp. On the way back to camp Kat makes a small moan to which Paul urges him to hang on only to discover upon his arrival back at camp that Kat had died on the way. A piece of shrapnel that had hit him in the head. Kat had been the last member of his original group to die. After this Paul is seen as the old man as many of the new recruits are under seventeen. 

Chapter 9 Summary!!!!

Paul has just returned from leave and is curious as to the fates of his entourage, especially Kat.  Being as no one is aware whether or not other men in his group have survived Paul heads to the orderlies to see the fate of his men.  Paul finds out his friends are still on the front and instead of joining them waits three days and they return.

Upon return from the front they are forced into doing heavy drills and are put through heavy inspection as the Kaiser is coming to the front to personally inspect the troops. Paul explains that these drills are more humiliating than being on the front and that the front is preferable to the drills. The Kaiser eventually comes and delivers a few medals before leaving. Upon the Kaisers departure the fancy uniforms are quickly confiscated back.

Paul and the troops are disappointed by the appearance of the Kaiser. They imagined him larger, more powerful and to have a thundering voice. 

Instead of going to Russia, Paul and his men are sent back to the front. There they see a totally decimated line. Men laying naked having been blown out of their clothes and body parts scattered.  The soldiers become aware of how strong their enemy is shortly before a long burst of machine gun fire, a bomb lands close to Paul but narrowly misses him. Paul jumps into a trench and starts navigating the trench but has forgotten the way back to camp.  Paul ends up in no mans land where he comes face to face with a French soldier. The two engage in hand to hand combat and Paul stabs him 3 times. The French soldier falls and starts gurgling, Paul realizing that he’s not dead starts trying to take care of him. Offering him water and patches up his wounds. He finds a photo of a woman and a little girl in the French Soldiers pocket book and offers to write to them and send money. He later says that everything he promised he would do for this man he suggests he probably would not do.

Paul waits until nightfall and crawls out of the hole to find Kat and Albert went out searching for him. The next morning Paul tells his comrades what he had done to the French soldier and was consoled.