Narrator
The first-person narrator is based on the novel’s author who served in the war, fought in the trenches, received wounds and honors. The decision to tell the story in the first person serves to imprint the story as a memoir of extreme—often brutal—realism that has been fictionalized only thinly in the service of dramatic aesthetics.
Corporal Bertrand
Bertrand is describe as aloof, silent and handsome. He is seriously committed to being a soldier and easily earns the respect of others. He is famous for possessing a large knife with a horn handle.
Lamus
Lamus the Huge, a big ox of a man with a mouth like a tomato and moist eyes. A self-confessed master of the art of loafing, he is nevertheless heroic when the occasion demands.
Paradis
Baby-faced compadre of the narrator who often joins him for philosophical conversations about war. Before the war, he practiced this art through the cafes on Sunday afternoons.
Volpatte
The always unhealthy Volpatte starts out hoarse and jaundiced. His nose is broken and he nearly loses both ears during battle. Upon returning from hospitalization following that close call, he has become angry and abuse, expressing a profound bitterness toward nearly everyone.
Poterloo
The tragedy of Poterloo somehow manages to remain domestic even during the horrors of trench warfare. Becoming friendly with some German soldiers he accompanies them to a village where he is shocked to his core to see through an open window the sight of wife enjoying a party with German non-commissioned officers.
