Chapter 8 Overview
Characters: Paul, Russian soldiers, Paul’s father, Paul’s sister
In Chapter 8, Paul is at the training camp, the one where Himmelstoss trained Tjaden, after his leave. Throughout the chapter, he has cut out his emotions for all people around him knowing that he will not be around for long. Training is boring for Paul, and he frequently spaces out, even to the extent of missing some of his commands. Next to the barracks is a Russian POW camp. Seeing the Russian soldiers up close, Paul starts to realize they look very much like him and is sad to watch them begging for food. Paul often has guard duties over the Russians, whose lives are anonymous and blameless. Paul goes on to say that, any schoolmaster is more of an enemy to his students than the Russians are to him, yet if they were freed, he would shoot at the Russians and the Russians would shoot right back. The Sunday before Paul is to leave for the front; his father and sister come to visit. He learns his mother is in a public hospital with cancer, and Paul and his father worry that they will not have enough money to pay for the operation. Before leaving, they give Paul potato cakes and jam his mother has made for him, and then they go to the train station. He decides after eating a couple to give the rest to the Russians, but after realizing how much pain his mother must have gone through to make them, he puts them back in his pack.
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