ands, in our hearts we are close to one another ...we sit with a goose between us and feel in unison, are so intimate that we do not even speak. (Remarque, All Quiet V. 87)These elemental and primitive activities of getting and then eating food bring about a communion, afeeling "inunison," between the two men that clearly cannot be found in the word-heavy environment of Baumers hometown. Perhaps Remarque wants to make the point that true communication can occur only in action, or insilence,or almost accidentally. At any rate, Baumer demonstrates toward the end of his life that even he is notimmunefrom verbal duplicity of a kind that was used on him to get him to enlist.Soon after he hears the comforting words of his comrades (see above), Baumer is caught in another shellholeduring the bombardment. Here, he is forced to kill a Frenchman who jumps into it while attacking theGermanlines. Baumer is horrified at his action. He notes, "This is the first time I have killed with my hands,whom I cansee close at hand, whose death is my doing" (Remarque, All Quiet IX. 193). That is, the war, and his partin it,have become much more personalized because now he can actually see the face of his enemy. In his grief,Baumer takes the dead mans pocket-book from him so that he can find out the deceaseds name and familysituation. Realizing that the man he killed is no monster, that, in fact, he had a family, and isevidently very muchlike himself, Baumer begins to make promises to the corpse. He indicates that he will write to his familyand goesso far as to promise the corpse that he, Baumer, will take his place on earth: "I have killed theprinter, GerardDuval. I must be a printer" (Remarque, All Quiet IX. 197). More importantly, Baumer renounces his statusassoldier by apologizing to the corpse for killing him. "Comrade, I did not want to kill you ... You were only an idea to me before, an abstraction thatlived in my mind and called forth its...
