My first impression to this book to be honest was not as bloody as film, but then when we went deeper we find more about the impact that the war made to these young soldiers. This book was not a book anymore but should been honored as a documentary that recorded what did the warfront look like.
My favorite character in this book was Kat because on the one hand, the experienced, cunning Kat demonstrates ways to make the most of life as a soldier, raising morale among the men and sharing tips and cook-bribing hacks that contrast with the meaningless lessons taught by the likes of Kantorek and Himmelstoss. Kat seeks ways to make war more tolerable, and to lessen the suffering of his comrades. The army, he argues, brings out the animalistic, reducing the veneer of civilization. At forty years old, Kat is older than Paul, and it’s unlikely the two would ever have met in peacetime. Kat’s life experience renders him reliable, a consummate survivor and a source of comfort to the men, and he becomes a father figure to Paul as well as his closest friend. But it’s this very experience that allows him to see modern warfare for what it is: their enemy. A cobbler by trade, Kat represents a preindustrial way of life, one which opposes the brutal hierarchies of the military.
Overall, the war was always cruel no matter the time, weapon or sizes, every soldiers and citizen of the country was innocent, the only sinners of the war is people who made decision to declare war and fire the bullets on these innocent. Such as what Kat think, the only meaning of the war in this boom was there there will be no elegant end for any of them—just more victims, unfairly slaughtered.