Quote 67
O dark, musty platoon huts, with the iron bedsteads, the chequered bedding, the lockers and the stools! Even you can become the object of desire; out here you have a faint resemblance to home; your rooms, full of the smell of stale food, sleep, smoke, and clothes! (3.46)
Paul practically sings a song to the platoon huts. In the context of war, when most soldiers sleep in muddy trenches or out in the open, the prospect of a shelter with real beds is a little slice o' heaven. It's hard not to feel Paul's enthusiasm here, and he isn't the kind of guy to show emotion.
Quote 68
You can see what he is thinking. There is the mean little hut on the moors, the hard work on the heath from morning till night in the heat, the miserable pay, the dirty labourer's clothes. (5.37)
Haie daydreams about life as a non-commissioned officer during peacetime. The life of a peat-digger is nothing to be excited about (peat is like partially decayed vegetation). When we think about these soldiers, we imagine that they have warm and cozy lives waiting for them at home. However, this moment makes us realize that that may not be the case. Haie has to find other dreams to keep him going.
Quote 69
The parachute-lights shoot upwards – and I see a picture, a summer evening, I am in the cathedral cloister and look at the tall rose trees that bloom in the middle of the little cloister garden where the monks lie buried. Around the walls are the stone carvings of the Stations of the Cross. No one is there. A great quietness rules in this blossoming quadrangle, the sun lies warm on the heavy grey stones, I place my hand upon them and feel the warmth. At the right-hand corner the green cathedral spire ascends into the pale blue sky of the evening. Between the glowing columns of the cloister is the cool darkness that only churches have, and I stand there and wonder whether, when I am twenty, I shall have experienced the bewildering emotions of love (6.93)
The presence of this ancient cathedral in Paul's memory makes us think about the idea of religion in this novel. What examples of religion do we see? Are you surprised that there isn't more discussion of religion? Do the soldiers believe in a higher power? There's something very mysterious in this memory in which Paul's youth, his curiosity, and his hunger for his future all converge in a holy place in which people are respectfully buried. This memory forms such a contrast to his current context.