Paul is the guy. This is his book, his story, and his journey. He's the protagonist and, until the last paragraph, the narrator. Paul isn't a famous war hero. He's not a high-ranking, superstar off...

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served ColdWhen we first meet Tjaden, he's in ecstasy over the excess food rations made available by the death of so many soldiers. This scene underlines a couple of key face...

Kropp Til You DropAlbert Kropp is the resident philosopher of Paul's company.  This guy is a thinker, and he asks some of the biggest questions in this novel.Here are a couple of Kropp's musin...

Detering is, in essence, a total sweetie-pie. He spends the entire novel missing his wife and his farm back in Oldenburg. He also has a soft spot when it comes to animals: his biggest emotional out...

Big Boss HimmelstossHimmelstoss doesn't get a lot of screen time (page time?) but he's both profoundly memorable and profoundly thematically important.The reason? He's a total jerk.You'd think that...

Kemmerich is the first soldier whose death is detailed. In fact, we hardly get to see him alive: we first encounter him when he's in the hospital. Watching Kemmerich's last hours makes a huge impre...

Haie represents an interesting demographic: the men whose civilian life is so hardscrabble that military service is a step up.Okay, so Haie doesn't actually think that life during wartime is prefer...