All Quiet Reflection

By Parker Nagtegaal

Today I finished All Quiet On The Western Front, it was the most depressing book I have ever read. The author captured the pain, suffering, and utter madness that occurs in war. Paul suffers many losses in the final chapter. He loses not only friends but his belief in life. He loses everyone who he has developed a relationship with. But the biggest lose of all was Katzinski, Kat was his best friend through out the war, Kat had taken Paul in and saved his life. When Kat was shot in the shin Paul took him on his shoulders and ran for the hospital. When he finally got to to the hospital he realized that even though he had talked to him only moments before that he had been hit by shrapnel on their way back from the front. Kat was lost to the war. Paul was finally broken by this, he had nothing left. His family doesn't understand him; his old friends don't understand him; his town doesn't understand him, the only people who truly understood the horrors war where his comrades, and none of them had survived. He now had nothing. When he got shot it may not have said but I think that he purposefully stood up and took the bullet because he had realized that the Germans were losing and he had nothing to fight for. This made me sad for the Paul. Over all I'm very happy I read this book, it may have been hard and painful to get through but in the end I feel as though it was an extremely meaningful experience. I will ever forget reading this educational, sad, and well written book. The writing that I have done will help this book stay with me forever, and who knows maybe at some point I'll even reread it.