The famous book "Three Comrades" takes the reader to the era of the Weimar Republic in Germany, which had just survived the rout in the First World War. The country has experienced an economic crisis. City streets were flooded with soldiers returning from the front and disappointed in life.
Robert, Otto and Gottfried
Like other peers, had to fight and the three main characters of the novel Remarque. Robert Lokamp, Otto Kester and Gottfried Lenz are inseparable. These characters are described in great detail by Remarque. “Three comrades”, reviews of which fell like hail immediately after the first publication of the book, describe the everyday life of a repair shop where best friends work. The first day of the story is Robert's birthday (he is thirty years old). The main character (of the three friends it is on him that the author concentrates most of all) does not like such holidays due to the fact that during them he is overcome by unpleasant memories of his experiences.
Robert was just a boy when he got to the front upon a call. There he had to go through many horrors, which he could not forget about, returning to a peaceful life. This injured friends, and the painful death of fellow soldiers from suffocation due to poison gas. Then came inflation, hunger and other tribulations, which became the norm for a destroyed country. After the war, Otto Kester tried to study at the university, but dropped out, became a pilot, then a racer, and finally came to the car business. Lokamp and Lenz joined him as partners. Remarque especially tried to highlight this feature of their relationship. Three Comrades, reviews of which often emphasize friendship as the main theme of the novel, repeatedly demonstrate the close and trusting relationship between Lokamp, Lenz and Kester.
Buying Carla
Another important theme of “Three Comrades” (as well as the rest of Remarque’s work) is alcohol. In the first chapter, Lenz presents Robert with 6 bottles of rare and old rum for his birthday. Long and extraordinary descriptions of alcohol are one of the trademarks of such a prose master as Erich Maria Remarque. “Three comrades”, reviews of which over the years remain only positive, tell a lot about friends trying to make money in difficult times. An inseparable trinity bought old junk at a local auction and was about to make a real racing car out of it. Under the pretext of working on this car, Robert's morning birthday celebration is interrupted.
Between themselves, friends call their favorite "Karl." Putting it on wheels, in the evening they go to the suburbs, where they are going to fully celebrate their birthday. Along the road, Kester, Lenz and Lokamp, fooling around, overtake the rest of the cars that they got on the highway. Already in the restaurant they meet the driver and passenger of one of these cars. Together, the five of them organize a small festive feast. A passenger named Patricia Holman leaves Robert her number.
Lost generation
All reviews of the book "Three Comrades" note the bleakness of the environment in which the book takes place. For example, Lokamp lives in furnished rooms with neighbors of varying degrees of neglect. The young man, George Block, is about to enter the institute, piles over books for days, eats up the last money earned at the mine, and suffers from health problems. The Russian emigrant Count Orlov lives in constant fear that the Bolsheviks will get to him in Europe too. The Hasse couple have long forgotten about harmony and are constantly quarreling because of their financial condition.
By the example of personal portraits of various people, Remarque demonstrates his skills as a writer. “Three comrades” is a whole gallery of people who somehow suffered from the circumstances of the turbulent era. The lost generation is how the prose writer himself characterized them. Later, this term became popular among literary scholars (it also includes the work of Ernest Hemingway). Not far from the guesthouse Robert is the cafe "International", where he worked as a pianist before the car repair shop.
A new meeting with Pat
A few days after his birthday, Robert meets Patricia in a cafe. Their date is rather unusual. Lokamp knows almost nothing about the girl whom he met by sheer chance. Robert's uncertainty is compensated by the fact that he has long been familiar with the public and staff of a public institution, which significantly removes his tension. According to the protagonist, he spoiled the first date by drinking too much and saying too much. On Lenz’s advice, he sends Pat (so abbreviated as he calls Patricia) a bouquet of roses and apologizes for the oversight.
In the cafe, Remarque describes yet another front-line soldier - Valentin Gauzer. This acquaintance of Robert received an inheritance from relatives and now diligently drinks it. He does not want to strive for anything. Gauser, who had been in the war, is already glad that he has survived and can now drink when he pleases. Apathy and indifference are the moods that Remarque constantly attaches to his characters. “Three comrades”, reviews of critics and ordinary readers - all this is echoed by the author.
In the amusement park
There was a new meeting of Robert and Patricia. Now they decided to drive a car. The girl never drove a car, and Robert gives her practice on a quiet street. Then the couple goes to the bar, where he meets Lenz. Trinity (including Gottfried) decides to go to amusement park. There friends liked the pavilion with throwing rings on hooks. Lenz and Lokamp win all prizes.
Front comrades immediately recall the days of respite at the front, when they had to kill their free time by throwing hats on hooks. Good luck accompanies them in two pavilions at once. They go to the third, but the owner explains that he is closing. In the amusement park, the "shooters" have a lot of fans who are watching with curiosity their full-time competition. Friends give most of the prizes to these onlookers. The evening is clearly a success. Patricia is part of Robert's circle of friends. So gradually without sharp turns the plot of the book “Three Comrades” develops. The film, based on the novel in 1938, generally repeats its plot.
Karl racing
Friends are completing repairs and modifications to Karl. Kester, as the chief racer of the Trinity, is recording a car for racing. All night on the eve of the competition, friends check the health of the equipment. For outside mechanics on the track, the lurid “Karl” causes unbridled laughter, but Kester insists and prepares to start. In the stands gathered Lokamp, Lenz and Patricia. Remixing his key characters in one scene Remarque. “Three comrades”, reviews of which the detailed dialogs are called the basis of the book, really change the pace when the next conversation or conflict of interests unfolds before the reader. But on the pages occupied by Robert’s inner thoughts, the narrative becomes sticky and ragged.
Kester, despite the ridicule of opponents, manages to come to the finish line first. Victory is an occasion for a festive dinner at the bartender Alfons (a general friend of Robert's company). At the end of the evening, Lokamp and Patricia quietly leave the feast. The girl remains to spend the night with Robert. The protagonist is surprised that it can cause some serious feelings in a woman, since his entire conscious life passed under the sign of strong male friendship. All these conflicting thoughts and reasonings are scrupulously described by Erich Remarque. The Three Comrades, reviews and reviews of the book impress the reader that this book has become outstanding due to its deep psychology, and not the plot twists and turns.
Past Patricia
Until now, work in a car repair shop has somehow fed my friends, but due to another jump in inflation, technicians have lost their last orders. Wallets are rapidly emptying, and the trinity decides to buy a taxi for their last savings and take turns to turn the steering wheel along the city streets. In this area, beginners have many competitors. During his first voyage, Robert takes a stand with another taxi driver and fights with him. Cooling down, men find a common language. Soon, Robert makes friends with another driver Gustav.
The storyline of the book "Three Comrades" continues. The reviews of ordinary readers and critics are unanimous: it is thanks to the relationship of Robert and Patricia that the novel is one of the most famous in the entire bibliography of a German writer. Lokamp first gets into his girlfriend’s apartment. The girl had no family left, and now she rents two rooms of the apartment, which once belonged entirely to Pat's parents. The hostess treats the guest with rum and tells new facts about her life.
Patricia survived the ordeal, familiar to the then Germany. She starved for a long time and spent a year in the hospital. She had no money left, relatives and work. Pat is going to get a saleswoman in a record store. Robert, who wants to help most of all, understands that with his modest incomes he is not able to support the girl. It begins to seem to him that Patricia needs a completely different man - wealthy and thorough. So puts his heroes before the trials and difficult decisions of Remarque. “Three comrades”, reviews of them and everything that has been written about the novel unanimously testifies - this is not sugary fiction with simple exits and a happy ending.
Holidays at sea
For several chapters, Robert has been trying to sell a refurbished Cadillac to a reseller Blumenthal. This businessman has a sharp temper and intransigence in transactions. But Robert, who has found a key to a potential buyer, finally manages to earn decent money on the car. The amount is enough to recoup the investment of friends and give them a profit that they have not seen for a long time. After a successful deal, the workshop is again a holiday.
With the money earned, Robert and Patricia go to sea. The start of a couple’s vacation is one of the highlights of The Three Comrades. Remarque, whose reviews of the book show him as a writer forcing a sad mood, this time briefly allowed his heroes to fully enjoy life.
Robert specifically chose the hotel in which he had already lived one post-war year. A couple bathes in the sea and sunbathes on the beach. Lokamp recalls how in 1917 his detachment indulged in the same little joys of life, at least briefly getting rid of ammunition. On the second day, Patricia begins to bleed. Robert calls friends and they find her doctor. After a couple of weeks, the girl wakes up and returns home. However, the alarm bell rang. Erich Maria Remarque often resorted to such unpleasant plot twists. "Three comrades" in this sense is no exception to his corporate style of narration.
New challenges
The doctor introduces Robert to Pat's medical history and insists on sending her to a sanatorium. An additional cause for concern is spoiled, wet weather, which negatively affects health. Patricia really goes to the hospital. Lokamp often visits her, and before leaving the girl gives a puppy - so that she would not be so bored and lonely.
There is almost no work in the workshop and taxi. Friends go to the mountains to run "Karla" on the eve of new races. An accident occurs before their eyes. Men rescue victims in a collision. A car repair shop receives several new repair orders, which is very helpful. The owner of one of the cars goes bankrupt. The vehicle is not insured, and friends cannot repay the money invested in its repair. Because of this, they have to sell the workshop.
The emergence of radicals
Amid the worsening economic situation in the city, it is becoming restless. Constantly held demonstrations of the dissatisfied, sometimes shootings ensued. Once Lenz goes to one of the rallies. Otto and Robert set off to look for a friend.
In the chapter devoted to these events, Erich Maria Remarque is especially accurate and thoughtful. The Three Comrades, reviews of which from the first days of the publication spoke of them as a deeply pacifist book, were more than ever right. Robert, who was closely following people at rallies, noticed that there were many fascist populists in the crowds. These speakers addressed small officials, workers, accountants, and other people who were severely affected by the economic peak. All of them became victims of growing radical propaganda, which suggested getting rid of the traitors and pests responsible for all troubles.
Roman Remarque was published in 1936, and the plot seems to unfold in the second half of the 1920s. Having written the book, the author was well aware of where the Nazis were leading his country. Although the Second World War had not yet begun, even then radical changes took place in German society. The repression began, people lived in a state of patriotic frenzy. On the pages of The Three Comrades, Remarque showed how the revanchist movement that gave Hitler Germany was born and gained popularity. Soon the prose writer had to immigrate from the country, and his books were banned. “Three comrades” were burned at the stake along with other ideologically incorrect literature.
Denouement
Otto and Robert were not in vain worried about Lenz. At the rally, he conflicts with provocateurs. During a heated argument, a young man unexpectedly runs out of the crowd and calmly kills Lenz, who has gone through the entire war. Kester and Lokamp swear to avenge each other. They almost overtook the criminal in a suburban catering, but he manages to escape. In the end, the provocateur was killed by Alfons. Robert tells Otto the news and returns to his guesthouse, where he is waiting for a telegram in which Pat asks him to come to the sanatorium as soon as possible.
Lokamp goes to the hospital on Karl with Kester. For the first time in a long time, Patricians are allowed to go beyond the boundaries of a medical institution. Robert and Otto listen to a doctor talking about the miraculous recovery of patients. However, friends who have seen so much already understand the true meaning of the doctor’s words, but do not even try to console each other. Soon, Kester leaves for the city, and Robert remains in the sanatorium. In parting, Patricia asked me to say hello to Lenz. Friends did not have the courage to tell her about the death of the merry fellow Gottfried.
After some time, Robert receives a parcel of money from Otto. He understands that Kester sold "Karl" - his last asset. The main character is desperate from a pile of heaped terrible news. This gradual thickening of colors is the whole Remarque. "Three comrades", a summary and reviews of which are called the novel a logical link in the creative chain of the writer, are right. In this book, the style of the prose writer is fully sustained.
In March, begins to warm. The first snowfalls occur in the mountains. The roar intensifies the atmosphere in the sanatorium even more. Patricia is getting worse day by day. She dies at night, holding Robert's hand. Together with her life ends Remarque's novel.