All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

Chapter eleven focuses on the fact that the war has gone on for so long. The soldiers no longer count the weeks. The comparison that Paul makes about the war being like cancer and tuberculosis is interesting to me because sickness and cancers are not by choice. Death because of the war could have been prevented. Only the higher up made the decision and the majority of the people would not have agreed. Paul compares themselves to animals because the instinct simply helps them watch against death. Paul describes how they become beat down day after day, not only physically but mentally too. It becomes imaginable that one might go crazy and "crack" as Detering did simply because he saw cherry trees that reminded him of home. It also becomes apparent that they are losing the war but they keep sending young men. Death surrounds them. It seems like a country's reputation is more important than all the lives that were sacrificed. The images about the summer of 1918 are so vivid that it is hard to imagine anyone having to live or die through all of the horror of the war. The chapter ends with Paul losing his best friend. This makes me feel sad because Paul and Kat were very close and their friendship helped them get through difficult times. Almost everyone knows what it is like to have a best friend like Kat was to Paul and loosing someone so close would be awful and that's why I empathize how Paul felt at this moment in the book.