All Quiet On The Western Front - Extract Analysis, Pg 23

Shortly after the death of his life-long friend Kemmerich, Bäumer provides a monologue describing how "...the darkness and wind are a salvation... The whole earth is suffused with power and it is streaming into me... What I feel is hunger, but a stronger hunger than just the desire to eat -" 

Darkness conceals and obscures, enveloping that which is present and isolating it from the external; one might therefore propose that it acts as a shield or a cloak, hiding within itself whatever it falls upon. For Bäumer, this would potentially mean enclosing himself in the darkness, isolating and detaching himself from his current existence. The wind, being simply an aspect of nature, is one of the functions of the earth to maintain a habitat. Thus, this natural function might be proposed to exhibit how the world continues to operate despite the events of the front through demonstrating that natural processes continue, and therefore illustrate that there is life beyond the war. This concept would also receive contextual support, given how Kemmerich was an individual known to Paul for numerous years prior to the war, and how he is referred to as a human being rather than just another casualty in the fray. Therefore, combined, the darkness acts to segregate Bäumer from the reality of the war, whilst the wind serves as a physical reminder for the perpetuation of the world beyond the conflict, that life continues despite the terrible events that may be suffered by individuals or collectives, made pertinent here by the loss of a comrade whose existence extended back to the world before the war.

Yet, stimulation is also integral here. Darkness deprives us of our principal sense, essentially causing detachment to a certain degree through loss of contact with the visual world, upon which we are reliant. Wind, meanwhile, acts as a stimulus, provoking human response when exposed to it. Feeling, as Paul does in the extract, is therefore an undeniably human response, which given the dehumanising indifference described by Remarque in the previous section, serves to suggest that Bäumer regains a proportion of humanity in his current position. Subsequently, this "...salvation..." might be that the combination of the darkness and the wind serve to restore a degree of humanness to Paul, separating him from the war momentarily and causing him to self-reflect, whilst simultaneously evoking a human response from him, together restoring his humanity through the replacement of apathy with a rediscovering of feeling. This concept is continued when Remarque describes how "...power...is streaming into [Bäumer]...", where "...streaming..." itself implies a flow, an unceasing influx of energy into his being, which evokes reaction through the release of inner desire, or a "...hunger..." which exceeds mere consumption.

Bäumer's "...hunger..." has further meaning, given that it can be perceived as a desire or requirement for nourishment. Yet equally, human beings have often referred to a spiritual, intellectual or political hunger, this concept that there is a prerequisite beyond the mere animalistic needs of subservient creations to achieve humanity, a compulsion for nourishment beyond the physical; therefore, this hunger experienced by Paul suggests that he has been deprived of this drive, this desire, which now returns to him due to this dual isolation and self-discovery that is the consequence of Kemmerich's death. In turn, one might infer that this is another demonstration of how Paul's humanity is temporarily restored, this concept that his internal reflection leads to a "...hunger..." for something greater than just mere self-sustainment, to fulfil these profundities and find purpose for his existence.