How does tjaden get in trouble with himmelstoss

For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. When we first meet Tjaden, he's in ecstasy over the excess food rations made available by the death of so many soldiers. This scene underlines a couple of key facets of Tjaden's character: he's a pragmatist and a hedonist, someone whose huge appetites allow him to get through the psychological horrors of war. He's the guy who has the bright idea try to seduce some French women with a meal of army rations, after all: the guy knows that pleasure can alleviate fear, albeit briefly.

That's not to say that Tjaden plays the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil game when it comes to the war, though. Just check out this exchange:. That's our Tjaden: a guy who's able to ask the Big Questions Tjaden is also characterized by his uniquely strong defiant streak—he detests the abuse of authority and he clashes regularly with commandant Himmelstoss. There's a good reason for this: Himmelstoss humiliates Tjaden during basic training, because Tjaden has a problem with bed-wetting. Once both of them are sent to the Front, however, Tjaden concocts a scheme to get even with Himmelstoss: he ambushes Himmelstoss when he's stumbling back from a pub, yanks down his pants, and whips his bare butt.

Later, Tjaden tells Paul that the "thrashing was the high-water mark of his life" 5. As a result, Himmelstoss storms out, threatening a court-martial and Tjaden laughs so hard he dislocates his jaw, causing Kropp to hit him in order to realign it.

They wonder if Himmelstoss will report Tjaden, who laughs that he could sit out the war in prison. The confrontation ends in the Orderly Room where Lt. Bertink gives Tjaden and Kropp a fair hearing and the bed-wetting incident is recounted. Tjaden gets three days open arrest behind a barbed wire fence, and Kropp gets one day. This is a light sentence; the others are able to visit the prisoners and play cards with them. Chapter 5 also includes a scene of friendship and affection between Paul and Kat.

They go after a goose and end up killing, roasting, and eating it in a shed away from the others. It is a quiet moment of contentment, in which Paul declares to himself, "We are brothers.

As the chapter ends, Paul considers the contrast between their evening and the events of the war: "We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and the circle of death. In Chapter 5, Remarque takes the opportunity to contemplate the war and its effects on his generation.

His treatment suggests that for every terrible event there is an opposite opportunity: The comradeship that reveals the humanity of these desperate men contrasts with the terrible inhumanity all around them. Paul counts up the men in his class that enlisted together.

Tjaden rushes off to hide before Himmelstoss returns with the authorities. They calculate that there are only twelve men left out of the twenty from their class who joined the army. Seven are dead, four are wounded, and one went insane. They mockingly recite questions that Kantorek shot at them in school. Paul cannot imagine what he will do after the war. Kropp concludes that the war has destroyed everything for them. They are not impetuous youths anymore but men perpetually on the run.

They cannot believe in anything except the war. Himmelstoss returns with the sergeant-major to punish Tjaden. Paul and the others refuse to tell him where Tjaden is hiding. The sergeant-major solves the problem by declaring that Tjaden must report to the Orderly Room within ten minutes. The men resolve to torment Himmelstoss at every opportunity. Himmelstoss returns later to demand that they tell him where Tjaden is. Kropp insults him, and Himmelstoss storms off. Later that evening, Kropp and Tjaden are put on trial for insubordination.