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.