Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

It’s after many changes to constants in Paul’s life that his depression worsens to the point that Paul decides to take his own life. Firstly, there is a drastic change is Paul’s mental health after he is removed from the world of art. It is after his removal that Paul is no longer able to control these wants and desires to have a life full of lavishes and luxury in a manageable and positive way. As these desires continue to bombard his fragile ego, it is unable to properly repress them therefore causing Paul to disconnect from society and those around him in order to attempt to fulfill his fantasy because “it was at the theater and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived; the rest was but a sleep and a forgetting.” Although, Paul’s father removed …show more content…
In reality going to New York in order to live out this imaginative reality cannot repair the emotional damage that Paul suffers from this separation from “mother” and in fact causes it to continually worsen until Paul takes his own life.
While in New York the mental repercussions of being separated from “mother” and removed from the world of art do not disappear. These repercussions, in actuality, become more evident such has disconnection from society, these feelings of being unloved and unwanted and this need to please others due to a fear of being rejected by the one place he thought he would belong.
The most evident repercussion of this traumatic event is Paul’s disconnection from society. This disconnection from society is first seen when Paul is eating alone and Cather says, “He had no especial desire to meet or to know any of these people; all he demanded was the right to look on and conjecture, to watch the pageant.” The fact that Paul sits alone and has no desire to speak with anyone else establishes that Paul is disconnected from those around him. Before New York Paul is still able to establish some sort of connection with those around him. It is after being separated from Carnegie Hall that Paul is solely focused on this imaginative reality, that Paul fully disconnects from society. Therefore, illustrating how his connection is severed as a result of this traumatic

Show More

Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front