Brothers

This post would be a shorter one, because I have read one of the major themes in a short chapter. To summarize what I have read, Tjaden mouths back at Himmelstoss, and disobey his orders the next day to avoid Himmelstoss. In the end, a bigger authority figure came in. He understood both stories, and had a talk with Himmelstoss about his unreasonable acts. Tjaden and Kropp were open arrested for a day, not because of what they've done, but just to feed the satisfaction of leaders. Open arrest was described as soothing compared to closed arrest. Closed arrest meant the cellar, and are probably used for deserving punishments. Here we could see a bond already between Kropp and Tjaden. Kropp was arrested because of helping Tjaden.
The next brotherly connection we see is more of a major one, and is between Paul and Kat. The two go hunting secretly, and when they were cooking a stolen goose, Paul described that nothing was said among them. This is one of those "comforting silence" I suppose, where nothing said among two individuals were not awkward. It was because they knew each other so well, and felt that they were in unison, that no words were needed to be said. Paul even said that he loved him, " his shoulders, his angular stooping figure", which might be one of the reasons why this novel was banned. It could be said that it contained "homosexual content". However, Paul was really describing the spiritual intimacy they had with each other, how close they were as brothers. When he talked about his figure, he was describing what he was seeing as Kat took his turn of cooking the goose while Paul was falling asleep.
In a way, war might also be a protagonist because it made what Paul and his comrades into the people they were. It brought incredible connection between all of them, a special bond that nothing, other than war, would've brought them. The antagonist would then be life itself, the leaders and generals, and the bad outcomes of war. Bad outcomes of war meaning the enemies attack, shell shock, life threatening situations...which ironically would also have a "good outcome", because it was through those times the soldiers become closer with one another.