All Quiet on the Western Front

First-person narratives have limitations as to the development of other characters in a work. Generally, the narrator cannot disclose the inner thoughts of others and without knowing this information, secondary characters tend to be less rounded and developed than in third-person narratives. Of all the characters in this novel, with the exception of Paul, Katczinski is the most developed. In addition to his uncanny ability to secure good food for his company, Kat’s attributes are numerous. Most significantly, Kat has the wisdom that comes from practical experience rather than theory. He is careful with his words, and he is able to sense things before they actually happen. In these ways, he serves as a counter to the likes of Kantorek, who pretend to know more than they actually do.

As Paul discusses how societal pressure essentially goads men into buying the faulty premises of fighting this war, he mentions how even families are ready with the word “coward” to level against those unwilling to fight. Kat’s demeanor can be witnessed in Paul’s description of his response: “that was a result of their upbringing. It made them stupid. And what Kat said, he had thought about” (7). Kat’s deliberate thinking acts as a counterweight to some of the men who speak more spontaneously. His comments tend to show a consistent balance between common sense and a realistic outlook on the predicament the men are in. Perhaps even more so than his superior officers, Kat understands the men’s basic needs, and when he secures a goose or a pig, he is generous and always shares with his comrades.

Kat is also Paul’s best friend in the novel. They are effectively brothers, and Paul finds a role model in the way Kat handles his day-to-day experiences at the front. Even after both men have been critically wounded toward the end of the narrative, Kat’s determination influences and motivates Paul to persist in surviving. His death is the most prominent cause of Paul’s feelings of defeat at the end of the novel.

Of all the men in the company, Tjaden demonstrates the most aggression consistently. However, this posture is almost always directed at those who have compelled him to fight. For example, when the men gang up on and beat Himmelstoss, Tjaden is the one who reigns down the most vicious blows. The others must physically restrain him so that Himmelstoss is not killed. Symbolically, Himmelstoss represents something more to Tjaden; he is the embodiment of the kind of man who has condemned the likes of Tjaden. In all the whirling action portrayed in the text, we do not see this degree of purposeful aggression enacted by any of the men as we do here.

In some ways, Tjaden is portrayed as something of a simpleton who is unable to see nuance in things and whose primary concerns in life revolve around food. Paul mentions that Tjaden wets his bed; in Chapter 1, when it is learned that the cook has prepared food for 150 men when only 80 still remain after a battle, Tjaden is slow to figure out what his comrade Kropp has already deduced—that it will mean more food for the men. Paul describes Tjaden’s physical response when he finally understands that more food is potentially available: “Suddenly a vision came over Tjaden. His sharp, mousy features began to shine, his eyes grew small with cunning” (3).

The focus on Tjaden’s apparent simplemindedness magnifies his reductive worldview. For a man like Tjaden, this war is not complicated. When he intercedes in a conversation between the men and claims that because he has never been offended by the French he has no justification for being in the war, the certainty of his logic is flawless. Through Tjaden’s common sense, which is void of nuance, we can see the absurdity of men killing each other in massive numbers for reasons they do not fully understand.