e says is true (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 160). He does so easily because he realizes thatnothing issacred to him. By perverting this oath, Baumer shows both his unwillingness to communicate honestly withamember of the home front and his rejection of the God of that society. Thus, another break with an aspectof hispre-enlistment society is effected through Baumers conscious misuse of language.During his leave, perhaps Baumers most striking realization of the vacuity of words in his formersociety occurswhen he is alone in his old room in his parents house. After being unsuccessful in feeling a part of hisoldsociety by speaking with his mother and his father and his fathers friends, Baumer attempts toreaffiliate with hispast by once again becoming a resident of the place. Here, among his mementos, the pictures and postcardsonthe wall, the familiar and comfortable brown leather sofa, Baumer waits for something that will allow himto feel apart of his pre-enlistment world. It is his old schoolbooks that symbolize that older, morecontemplative, lessmilitary world and which Baumer hopes will bring him back to his younger innocent ways. I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feelwhen I turned to my books. The breath of desire that then arose from the coloured backs of the books, shallfill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatienceof the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall bring back again the lost eagerness ofmy youth. I sit and wait. (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 151)But Baumer continues to wait and the sign does not come; the quiet rapture does not occur. The roomitself, andthe pre-enlistment world it represents, become alien to him. "A sudden feeling of foreignness suddenlyrises inme. I cannot find my way back" (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 152). Baumer understands that he is irredeemablylostto...
