Chapter:12, End
Character(s)- Paul
Setting: a garden back at home, Autumn time 1918
Theme: reflection of postwar in Germany for young soldiers; how will they live in normal society again?
Paul is sent back home on a 14 day leave because he was exposed to poisonous gas. At this point Paul is the only one alive out of the 7 soldiers part of his unit. Back at home Paul is considering what life will be like after the war, he fears that the younger soldiers that are fighting in the war will not be able adapt to normal every day routine. He sees it as, once a soldier always a soldier. After his short, but unsettling, time spent at home he is sent back to the front to fight. In October, the same year, Paul fell to the ground dead on a day according to the report write up, that was "all quiet on the western front". One saw that the expression on his face showed that he did not suffer long, he had a calm look to him as though he was wanting for this to happen.
Chapter 12 summarizes Paul's fear of integrating back to normal everyday life. This is his fear throughout the book, he notices that all the adult soldiers have a life to get back to after the war is fought but the for the young one this is all they know. Paul is worried that he has lost all his ability to express emotion and the report reading shows that loss of emotion during wartime.
