He can no longer communicate with his parents, and talking about the war simply worries him, because he does not want to put his fears into words.Įverything at home is so different from a year ago. Although his mother welcomes his civilian clothes, his father wants him to wear his uniform, but Paul refuses. He puts on civilian clothes that are too small for him since he has grown in the army looking in a mirror he hardly recognizes himself. Having endured the horrors of the front, Paul is angry that he should be scolded for his lack of protocol. On his way to the commandant's office, Paul fails to salute a major, who chastises him for his bad manners. Later, in the kitchen, Paul's sister informs him that his mother has suffered for several months with a recurrence of cancer. Unable to relieve his mother's illness, Paul assuages her worries with lies. Although Paul mentions that his family was never demonstrative, he feels there is a distance, a veil that did not exist earlier. Paul's fearful mother questions him about wartime conditions, concerned about what she has heard. He perceives the frailty of his ailing mother and sits at her bedside, glad that he feels no need to converse, and presents his gifts of bread, butter, cheese, sausage, melted fat, and rice - rations that are in short supply among civilians. Weak from the emotion he feels when he hears his sister's voice, Paul leans on his rifle and weeps, then recovers his military bearing and demands a handkerchief. The smells of the stream draw his thoughts to memories of playing there as a boy. He takes in the street, cyclists, a subway, the mill bridge, an old tower, shops, and bare-armed laundresses. He buys his pals a round of drinks at the canteen, bids goodbye to the brunette, and then reports to the railhead for the long trip home.Īrriving on Saturday, Paul's heart trembles at the passing scene as it becomes more familiar. Kat encourages him to try to get a job at the training camp talking with Kat, Paul wonders whether he will ever see these comrades again.
In her arms, he tries to forget the death and the terror of war.įollowing their amorous episode, Paul is issued a seventeen-day pass, to be followed by training on the moors, totaling a full six weeks away from battle. Paul, disdainful of military brothels, clings to a small brunette, his mind filled with passion for the dream girl he saw on the poster. The girls welcome their late-night visitors, chatter in French, and share the food. Later that night, undeterred by lack of official leave and bolstered by rum, punch, and tall tales, the men plunge into the canal, holding cigarettes in their boots as they swim on their backs to the opposite side. After the soldiers promise food, the girls boldly gesture toward their house and walk on. Paul and the others decide to visit the delousing station.īilleted near a canal, Paul and his friends swim naked and flirt in makeshift, broken French with three French girls. The girls in the poster remind them of the life they had forgotten, and they look at themselves and see the many layers of civilization that are gone. Kropp and Paul find a theatre poster from a long-since-abandoned theatre. Instead, he recounts who is dead and wounded and tries to use humor to keep his thoughts straight. At rest and full of food, Paul cannot think of the front line. Himmelstoss also took over the cooking from Ginger, so he brings Paul and his friends food. Himmelstoss is friendly and, because he brought Westhus back after he was wounded, Paul is kinder to him.
They are reorganizing, in need of more than a hundred reinforcements. At the field depot, Second Company takes a brief, well deserved rest.