The theft of Kemmerich's watch and boots

The Theft of Kemmerich's Watch and Boots

                In chapter 1 and 2 of All is Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the moral decay fostered by war is displayed. Kemmerich lays in the hospital with his foot in pain, everyone assured that he wasn’t going to come out of that place. While Kemmerich lies unconscious his watch is stolen and Mueller has asked to use his boots. This first chapter immediately introduces the brutality of war and the idea that soldiers have become numb to the idea of death. The soldiers of the war have witnessed more deaths in a month than any one person would witness in their lifetime, they must also live in constant fear that they could be the one on that table with their leg amputated. Even when the soldiers come to visit Kemmerich, the thoughts on his death is explained in immense detail “[His nails] twist themselves into corkscrews and grow and grow, and with them the hair on the decaying skull, just like grass in good soil, just like grass, how can it be possible,” (page 15) showing the vicious thoughts that come across their mind when their friend is dying next to them. The theft of Kemmerich’s watch and Mueller’s plan for his boots uncovers the truth about war. For these men, war has become a place where their morals are lost and has destroyed every part of who they are. The idea of an iron youth is mocked, “He laughs. We are the Iron Youth,” where the men feel that have not lived their youth life but rather have suffered and been trained to be cold-blooded. The situations of the watch being stolen and Mueller wanting Kemmerich’s boots are extremely similar due to them both showing what the men have come to value. When Kemmerich is hospitalized the men take advantage of his vulnerability, excited about the materialistic things that they can take off of Kemmerich. It is sorrowful when it says that the watch and boots are his most prized possessions, but since he has no use for them any more due to him dying the soldiers feel the need to take them for themselves. The men’s morals decay in the way where instead of focusing on the death of a friend, they give attention to the materials that they want. Much of chapter 2 focuses on the boots, and less on the death of a fellow comrade. The author might have done this to show the loss of importance of death in the soldiers eyes. The the simplest things become inhuman for the soldiers “the night lives, I live,” (page 330) and they live in the now focused on the insensitive lives they are living. The boots and watch situation helps display how the morals of the soldiers have been lost due to the brutality of the war.