All Quiet on the Western Front

I’m still reading All Quiet on the Western Front, and although I haven’t had much time to read it, I am really enjoying what I have read so far. Baumer, the main character has described some of the setting, and I’m starting to understand the situation. In one of the scenes, one of Baumer’s good friends, Kemmerich is in the hospital, after being shot in the leg. Baumer and his friends Tjuden, Muller, Kropp and Leer go and pay him a visit. When they are there they realize that Kemmerich has had his leg amputated, but he is on so much morphine that he doesn’t realize it. Muller notices Kemmerich’s nice shiny boots under the bed, and is tempted to take them, knowing that Kemmerich will never find a use for them. This situation brings light back onto the fact of how valuable some things can be in times of war. Another situation that stood out to me was when Baumer and his friends were talking about one of their old schoolteachers, Kantorek. Kantorek had talked to the boys about how everyone had their time in war, and for some people it came earlier than for others, and how every mans contribution to the war would be different, but equal. Reading this, my mind immediately flashed back to a scene from The Five People You Meet in Heaven, when the Captain is telling Eddie basically the exact same thing. It’s interesting that there is such a strong parallel, because The Five People You Meet in Heaven is literally the last book I read, and I usually don’t read books about war, so finding something a similarity is odd. I am interested to keep reading and find out what happens to Kemmerich, and what happens to Baumer and his friends.