Being an adult means something different to everyone and the way that their life goes will decide when and what will make them become a true adult. In this way it is portrayed that even though Paul is in the war now he is still not an adult in the beginning of All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Remarque.
War can make a boy into a man but at what point does this take place if they come into the war a child. Going into the war at the age of eighteen Paul is pulled away from his family even though he thinks he is now a man the way that he acts proves differently. When his friend gets the chance to take shoes a man would do the thing that would make him a better fighter and take the shoes, whereas a child would figure it was theirs and wouldn’t take them. When they are discussing the shoes his friend decides “Were Kemmerich able to make any use of the boots, then Müller would rather go bare-foot over barbed wire than scheme how to get hold of them”. These types of child like ideas and behaviors happen all through the beginning of the book and will slowly morph into adult behaviors and ideas. When he talks about being full he uses the word “bellies” which automatically makes the reader believe that he is a child even at the age of 18. Along with this a behavior that happens is the behaviors like sitting in a circle with his friends at lunch for a picnic makes the reader believe that he is a young boy if he would have not said how old he was. The way that this idea is shown is that almost every page there is something that only children say, do or think. Since Paul may not be able to become an adult truly until after this war by the end he will be able to decide what it re
