How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from All Quiet on the Western Front.
Quote #1
PETER: Where are all the guns? That's what I want to know.
PAUL: Oh, you don't get a gun for a long while yet.
PETER: Well, if I'm gonna bump off the enemy, I gotta have some practice.
MUELLER: Bayonet drill. That's what I want.
ALBERT: You won a medal that time, Mueller.
MUELLER: You wait. In about a month, I'll be covered with them.
When Paul and his friends first join the army, they treat the upcoming war like boys playing war. Death seems to have no consequences other than being tagged out of the game, and as the heroes of the story, they believe they'll be sporting a shiny coat of plot armor.
Quote #2
KEMMERICK: He's dead. He's dead.
KAT: Why did you risk your life bringing him in?
KEMMERICK: But it's Behn. My friend.
KAT: It's a corpse, no matter who it is.
But the game gets real when the 2nd Company has wiring duty at the Front. Paul and his friends suffer their first lost, and Kat has to teach them the harsh lesson of the Front: one man's corpse is not worth another man's life. In an adventure tale, Kemmerick's actions might be seen as heroic. In a real war, they're foolhardy.
Quote #3
PAUL: Muller. I saw him die. I didn't know what it was like to die before. And then…then I came outside and it felt…it felt so good to be alive that I started in to walk fast. I began to think of the strangest things, like being out in the fields. Things like that. You know, girls. And it felt as if there were something electric running from the ground up through me.
Death affects the soldiers differently. When Behn died, Kemmerick sank into a deep depression that resulted in psychological trauma. When Paul saw Kemmerick die, he was sad but also thankful that he was still alive.