I had to write an essay with the prompt: Remarque notes that camaraderie is the main subject of the book (All Quiet on the Western Front), discuss camaraderie as the main theme.
There's a difference between camaraderie and normal friendship. In friendship, the individualism of the different people is accepted and helps the friendship; in camaraderie the thing that brings people together is commonality. These two relationships are normally separated by circumstance. During peacetime, and even in peace zones during war, there is friendship because it sets you apart and you have self-interest over a unanimous goal (i.e. defeating the enemy). During war however, camaraderie prevails because war prevails. This is because it destroys the individual and there is a loss of identity. Only unity exists and everyone fight for the "Fatherland" mindset. War annihilates people and their souls and creates a soldier that is essentially a clone of the next soldier, "It is as though formerly we were coins of different provinces; and now we are melted down, and all bear the same stamp." Friendships don't help much during wartime though camaraderie helps and men feel "closer than lovers."
It is first shown in Remarque's novel when Paul, Kropp, and Müller go to the "latrine," a few wooden boxes. They sit there without being secretive or hiding anything, for as Paul says, "Since then we have learned better than to be shy about such trifling immodesties. In time things far worse than that came easy to us." Bäumer realizes that comradeship is the best thing that came out of the war, "But by far the most important result [of going into the trenches] was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war- comradeship." Only with comradeship does Paul survive. At one point, Paul is lost in between trenches and it says,
"I listen; the sound is behind me they are our people moving along the trench. Now I hear muffled voices. To judge by the tone that might be Kat talking.
At once a new warmth flows through me. These voices, these quiet words, these footsteps in the trench behind me recall me at a bound from the terrible loneliness and fear of death by which I had been almost destroyed. They are more to me than life, these voices, they are more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades."
Paul once falls asleep on the front while artillery is coming.
"Once I fall fast asleep. Then wakening suddenly with a start I do not know where I am... ... I lie in the pale cradle of twilight, and listen for soft words which will come, soft and near - am I crying? I put my hand to my eyes, it is so fantastic... ...it lasts only a second, then I recognize the silhouette of Katczinsky. The old veteran."
When he sees Kat, he recognizes where he is and is comforted. Soon after, a recruit is losing it, "Beside us lies a fair-headed recruit in utter terror. He has buried his face in his hands, his helmet has fallen off. I fish hold of it and try to put it back on his head. He looks up, pushes the helmet off and like a child creeps under my arm... ...I let him be." Paul is looking out for the recruit like Kat does for him. Without his help, the recruit would have probably gone crazy in terror.
Kat and Paul catch a goose and cook it together, "We sit opposite one another, Kat and I, two soldiers in shabby coats, cooking a goose in the middle of the night. We don't talk much, but I believe we have a complete communion with one another than even lovers have." Here it expresses that camaraderie lets you be closer than lovers. They are ruled by the unity brought on by the war and are closer than they could ever be. The war changes them completely,
"...it has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct- it has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horrow, which woud overwhilm us if we had a clear, conscious thought- it has awakened in us the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude..."
At the end of the book, it is only Kat and Paul. Kat is injured and Paul carries him, but Kat dies. An orderly at a hospital ask, "'You are not related are you?'" Paul thinks, "No, we are not related." Paul and Kat were closer than most people ever are or were, and in a sense are related, just not family. By the end of the book, Paul is alone and starting to go crazy and is like a Kat to the younger soldiers but has lost all sense of camaraderie but still remembers it. He has lost his individuality but has gained commonality resulting in comradeship.
If you could comment and critique that would be very helpful. Thanks!
Paul is alone and starting to go crazy and is like a Kat to the younger soldiers but has lost all sense of camaraderie but still remembers it. He has lost his individuality but has gained commonality resulting in comradeship.
So, you say he has lost camaraderie, but then you say that he has gained camaraderie. This does not make sense. You need to add a clause or two to make it clear what you really mean. Apart from that, your essay is on the right track. You have a clear thesis and plenty of relevant quotes. You need to strengthen your case for making a distinction between camaraderie and friendship, though. Friends normally share common interests, after all. You are right about the idea of war creating a certain group mentality, though. Camaraderie in the sense you are describing presumably applies even between soldiers who do not know each other, possibly even between those who do and who do not much like each other. They are still united by a shared purpose and a shared set of dangers and experiences. So, if you can find examples of this occurring in the book, it would allow you to flesh out your contrast between camaraderie and friendship, which is important because the distinction is entirely your own, or your own and whatever source you are drawing on -- the dictionary definitions overlap. Good job overall, though.
