All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

In chapter ten Paul and the others have the luxury of guarding a supply dump. They get to eat and sleep as much as they want. It's different from earlier chapters in the sense that the soldiers are able to feel human again, and actually enjoy themselves. They plan a large dinner where they have collected eggs, fresh vegetables, and two suckling pigs. The enemy sees the smoke coming from the house where they are cooking their meal and they bomb it. It almost seems comical as the soldiers make a mad dash with their food to the trench. Paul stays behind to finish making the pancakes, they are his favorite and he fears if he dies he will never be able to eat them again. I think it is interesting because while they risk their lives in the war they are also willing to risk their lives for a decent meal. I think it is funny that they weren't used to eating all of that food that they encountered diarrhea through out the night. Next Paul and Kropp are wounded by a falling shell. Kropp is so distraught about having his leg amputated that he wants to commit suicide. While they are in the hospital it becomes a scary reality of all the injuries that the soldiers face in warfare. What is truly alarming is that Paul's feeling is that to understand the war people should visit a hospital. Paul believes that all of these shattered bodies are nothing but despair, death, fear, and sorrow that could have been prevented. Paul again is sent on leave. He visits his mother again who is becoming weaker. He then returns once more to the line and he is separated from Kropp. Paul shows no emotion really, he feels like men become use to these things in the army which is sad because it shows that all of the horror the soldiers live through must really repress their feelings or they will loose their mind. I think it is almost as if they become numb to everything. Once again it becomes apparent how the war takes basically everything human from the young men. As I try to imagine what that would be like. It is so disturbing that I can hardly believe these things really happened.