Scribd
Upload
92 views5 pages

Character Descriptions

Albert Kropp is Paul's close friend and a speculative thinker who questions the causes of war. He notices the unjust treatment of enlisted men compared to officers. Corporal Himmelstoss is a ruthless disciplinarian who delights in humiliating and punishing soldiers, but cowers from battle. Stanislaus Katczinsky is the experienced leader of Paul's company who provides guidance to survive. Tjaden is attached to food and a pragmatist who clashes with abusive authority like Himmelstoss. Paul Bäumer is the narrator who transitions from a naive soldier to a hardened and unvengeful judge of characters affected by war.

Uploaded by

Ensar Citaku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
92 views5 pages

Character Descriptions

Albert Kropp is Paul's close friend and a speculative thinker who questions the causes of war. He notices the unjust treatment of enlisted men compared to officers. Corporal Himmelstoss is a ruthless disciplinarian who delights in humiliating and punishing soldiers, but cowers from battle. Stanislaus Katczinsky is the experienced leader of Paul's company who provides guidance to survive. Tjaden is attached to food and a pragmatist who clashes with abusive authority like Himmelstoss. Paul Bäumer is the narrator who transitions from a naive soldier to a hardened and unvengeful judge of characters affected by war.

Uploaded by

Ensar Citaku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Albert Kropp

Albert Kropp is the resident philosopher of Paul's company and one of Paul’s
closest friends. He is often described as a speculative thinker, and the most
intelligent in his company. Kropp asks some of the biggest questions in this novel in
regards to the emergence of war: “But what I like to know, says Albert, "is whether
there would not have been a war if the Kaiser had said No.” In chapter 3, Kropp goes as
far as to say that war should be similiar to popular festival with entrance-tickets
and bands along with a bullfight where ministers of countries can have an all out
battle amongst themselves in an arena. Kropp is one of the first to notice the unjust
authority, especially in chapter 2 at Kemmerich's hospital intervention, where he
points out how the nurses and attendants quickly respond to officers' pain, but are
slow to take care of enlisted men. He seems to be unfazed by the role of other
officers and careless of authority, especially when he jokingly pours a large bucket
of water all over Himmelstoss.
Corporal Himmelstoss

Himmelstoss is introduced as a ruthless disciplinarian in the training platoon Paul


and his classmates originally joined - Himmelstoss delights in humiliating the
inferior-ranking soldiers, especially Tjaden. For reference, Himmelstoss makes the
men train in the freezing cold without gloves, antagonizes and needlessly punishes
Tjaden for wetting the bed, and makes the soldiers do menial, repetitive tasks
throughout the course of chapter 3. Throughout chapter 5, Himmelstoss is easily
angered by Paul’s company and goes as far as to file a trial against Tjaden and
Kropp for their misdemeanors towards him - this displays his hypocritical ways of
thinking since he victims himself to the lieutenant. Ironically, it's Himmelstoss
himself who's unable to fight properly when introduced to trench warfare in
chapter 5. During a particularly difficult battle, Himmelstoss cowers in a dugout,
pretending to be wounded rather than going out into the battle - this act of
cowardice makes Paul Bäumer furious.
Stanislaus Katczinsky

Katczinsky is the leader of Paul’s Second Company and the oldest/most


experienced in the group. He is described mature and strong with brimming
knowledge about survival. Kat has a distinct habit for making shrewd trades and
acquiring necessary equipment or food in seemingly impossible situations. Kat
becomes Paul's closest friend and a considerable father figure to him throughout
the course of the story and he believes in duty, despite not personally embracing
the ideals of war. In chapter 3 of the story, Kat makes a remark that if every soldier
got the same food and the same pay, the war would end quickly. Although he fights
with as much heart as any of them, he has more than a little bit of contempt for the
higher-ups who propel the war forward. In chapter 4, Kat explains to the recruits
how to distinguish which guns are firing by listening to the blasts. As a matter of
fact, his pure witt is displayed in this very same chapter when he predicts of a
bombardment in the trenches just in time for his comrades to take cover in the
shells.
Tjaden Stalkfleet
Tjaden is first introduced as a former locksmith and one of Paul’s fellow soldiers in
the Second Company whose huge appetites and attachment to food allow him to
get through the psychological horrors of war. When we first meet Tjaden, he's in
joy over the excess food rations made available by the death of so many soldiers.
This shows him to be more of a pragmatist since he often thinks of situations in a
more practical way to his own benefits. Tjaden is also described with hatred
toward abusive authority as he often clashes with his commander, Corporal
Himmelstoss. Prime examples of this can be taken from chapter 3 where he jumps
and beats up Himmelstoss as an act of revenge for his cruel treatment upon him.
Although in chapter 5 of the story, Tjaden does combat this abusive behaviour by
giving a speech to the judge for Himmelstoss’s abusive behaviour during his
training, giving him a much-reduced sentence in consideration of Tjaden’s revenge
schemes against the commander. This depicts Tjaden as a lively and peaceable
character, going against anyone who subjects him against his ideology of
peacefulness.
Paul Bäumer

Paul Bäumer is the protagonist/narrator of “All Quiet in the Western Front”


without major experiences in his life before his enlistment in the war, still naive to
various aspects of life. Paul’s narrations transitions from an unripe soldier to a
judge of character and a force for kindness in a world engulfed by violence. Him
changing to a hardened soldier makes him supress his emotions throughout his
story-telling - instead of writing diary entry after diary entry about how sad he is to
lose Kemmerich, he simply shrug things off. Paul has an un-vengeful way of
thinking about clueless authority figures who make his life miserable (figures such
as Kantorek and Himmelstoss). He treats all of them with a passive-aggressive
respect and often criticizes how his mentor has been morally manipulating young
soldiers to waste their lives for the sake of their nation in war. Paul learns that he is
part of a lost or ruined generation since he realizes he has nothing to return to after
the war is over, and never believes that he can achieve any meaningful goals due to
the scarring of war. Despite this, Paul is reluctant of becoming a writer since he is
able to communicate injustices to a broad audience.

You might also like