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Rommel’s views on lower ranking officers can easily be applied to the minor characters in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Were it not for the minor characters in the novel, Paul Bäumer’s character would be as irrelevant as a Field Marshal without any advisers. The minor characters play a crucial role in the novel, but three above all. Corporal Himmelstoss plays an important role in forwarding the plot, Gérard Duvall aids in characterization and Kantorek helps establish a theme of the novel.
Himmelstoss, who was a postman before the war, becomes a corporal when the war starts, and is made a training officer at the army barracks at Klosterberg. In this position, Himmelstoss had too much power over the lives of his men, and he allowed it to corr
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However, this cruelty did serve a purpose. Had Paul not had the experience with Gérard Duvall, the reader would not be able appreciate these two traits which are shown more vividly through this incident, than any other in the novel. I wish the gurgling were there again, grasping hoarse, now whistling softly again hoarse and load. My field dressing covers them, the blood runs out under it, I press it tighter; there; he groans. upt him, and soon gets the reputation of being the “terror of Klosterberg,” (Remarque 10). Soon the silence is more unbearable than the groans. Where would the world be if one brought every man to book? There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best – in a way that cost them nothing,” (12). After Paul mortally wounds the French soldier, he tries to help him, first by giving him water, then later, he tries to bandage Gérard Duvall’s wounded neck, but his efforts are in vain, as he dies shortly after the bandages are applied.
In conclusion, minor characters play a major role in Erich Remarque’s novel “All Quiet in the Western Front”, the most important of which are Himmelstoss, who aides in plot development, Gérard Duvall, who helped in characterization, and finally Kantorek who represents the nationalistic generation who sends Paul and his class off to war. “With a full pack and rifle I have had to practice on a wet, soft, newly ploughed field the “Prepare to advance, advance!” and the “Lie down!” until I was one lump of mud…” (23 – 24). But he did allow himself to be persuaded; otherwise he would have been ostracized. This abuse is described very well in second chapter of the novel, as Paul says “…under his orders I scrubbed the Corporals’ mess with a tooth brush.
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