All Quiet on the Western Front

How does the bombardment and gas attack develop the idea of camaraderie

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One way in which the gas attack develops the idea of comaraderie can be found in the way Paul works with the recruit. As Paul crawls deeper into the hole to escape the attack, he is stopped by Kat, who screams to spread the warning: gas. Paul grabs his gas mask and warns a recruit, who doesn't understand. Paul puts the boy's mask on and returns to his shell-hole. The gas-shells arrive, and Paul worries that his mask isn't airtight; he has seen in hospitals how gas can destroy lungs. The gas floats over the ground as a second bombardment begins. A coffin is thrown up from the ground and hits a man. The men free him, but his arm is shattered and he swoons. The shelling over, Paul removes his mask. They carry off the wounded man and find another man on the ground, hit in the hip. Paul knows the man will never walk again. They dress the wound, and when Paul finds the recruit is not wearing underwear, he realizes he is the one who defecated in his pants. They decide it is better to shoot the recruit and put him out of his misery, but before they can others come by and they carry him off.

If the various wounds of man and animal were not bad enough, the recruit's defecation in his pants is. But even that humiliation allows Paul to play the paternal role of a veteran--which, indeed, he and the others are in comparison to the green recruits, as they previously noted. More evidence of camaraderie occurs in the gas episode, when Paul puts on a recruit's gas mask for him, just as he shielded the first recruit.

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All Quiet on the Western Front