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surprise gas attack kills many. One day Himmelstoss panics and Paul

shouts at him until he can grasp an order and regain his wits. Haie

Westhus, who had hoped to reenlist in the army for a nice, clean job

after the war, suffers a serious back wound. Still, says Paul, they

have held their little piece of convulsed earth. It's the only kind of

victory to be seen in this war. On a grey autumn night they return

behind the lines. Second Company is now down to 32 men.

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NOTE: IMAGERY Paul again dreams of quiet beauty. He notices a

butterfly amid the devastation and comments on how terribly young

the replacement recruits are. Of his own group he says, "We are

forlorn like children.... I believe we are lost." He has felt like a

child at least twice before- the night they strung barbed wire and the

night he helped Kat baste the goose. Both times he awoke to find Kat

there, like a father. Why does part of him long for that element of

childhood? What is it from childhood that he thinks he and his

classmates have lost so completely?

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CHAPTER_7

CHAPTER 7

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This chapter gives us some breathing space. We follow the men back

to a field depot for reorganization. The change in Himmelstoss seems

to be permanent: not only did he rescue Westhus; he has also wangled a

job as substitute cook and slips Tjaden some butter and the others,

sugar.

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NOTE: By this time we could make a list of the ways Remarque has

developed his theme: how World War I destroyed a generation of young

men. It has taken from them the last of their childhood years, it

has destroyed their faith in their elders, it has taught them an

individual life is meaningless- and all it has given in return is

the ability to appreciate basic physical pleasures. According to Paul,

though, the men haven't entirely lost human sensitivity: they're not

as callous as they appeared in Chapter 1, wolfing down their dead

companions' rations. It's just that they must pretend to forget the

dead; otherwise they would go mad.

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A theater poster starts a new series of events in this chapter. At

the front, or even a few miles behind the lines, dirt and grime and

basic survival are the main elements of life. The poster, showing a

well-dressed, healthy pair of actors, reminds Paul and his

classmates of another world out there somewhere, a civilian world.

From history we know that civilians also did not fare well during

World War I, but Paul and his friends don't know that; they have not

yet gone home on leave. But the poster awakens desires. They try to

recover that world in stages. The first stage is simple. They can't do

much about their dirty, ragged, clothing, but they can stop the

itching awhile- they get deloused. The next stage is better. That

evening Leer, Kropp, and Paul dump Tjaden and swim a guarded canal for

an evening with three French women. They do the same the next night,

carrying the girls bread, sausage, and cigarets kept dry, overhead, in

their boots. To us it is clear that the girls are hungry and do not

care what uniform a man wears, as long as he's a decent guy and has

some food. But Paul wants more; he wants the little brunet really to

care about him personally.

One afternoon Paul stands the others drinks: he's been given two

weeks' leave plus travel time and temporary reassignment to another

camp. He tries to forget which of his friends will still be there when

he gets back.

The train trip home provides Paul- and us- with a sense of

transition to an entirely different kind of life, as old landmarks

appear, even the poplars. He doesn't understand why tears start

pouring down his face at the sound of his sister's voice calling to

their mother, "Paul is here." Perhaps it is simply homesickness,

catching up with him at last. His mother is ill with cancer, and

Paul does the most he can for them, offering cheese from Kat and

food from his own military rations. In the towns, shortages are acute,

though his family has saved Paul his favorite dishes. One day he

stands in line at the butcher's with his sister for three hours, but

the promised bones are sold out before they can get any. He can't even

talk to people any more. If he were to talk about front-line

horrors, as another soldier has done, upsetting Paul's mother, how

could he stand to go back?

On the whole, the leave he'd wanted so badly is a disaster. After he

reports to the district commander, some major whom he fails to

salute properly gives him a bad time. To avoid similar situations he

changes into his civilian clothes, even though they hardly fit any

more. His father and other old men press "the young warrior" with

opinions and questions that don't begin to connect with his own

knowledge of war. He can't even gain any comfort from the books and

papers in his own room.

When he goes to see Franz Kemmerich's mother, she blames him for

living while her son has died. In a gesture of kindness, he swears

Kemmerich died instantaneously and without pain, but he has seen so

many deaths since then that he forgets how he himself felt. He can

no longer understand so much grief for one man dead among so many.

The only relief is a visit to his classmate Mittelstaedt, who is now

the commander of a reserve unit. To his and Mittelstaedt's delight,

Schoolmaster Kantorek is in the unit! He's an absolutely

pathetic-looking soldier. Mittelstaedt demonstrates how he

humiliates Kantorek and throws his own slogans back into his face. Not

satisfied with that, he sends Kantorek on errands with a model

reservist, Boettcher, the former school porter, so the whole town

can laugh. The scene is comic, yet sad. Even though Paul doesn't blame

Kantorek for anything, it's interesting that he doesn't seem to feel

the slightest shame at his classmate's behavior. Is this still the

same boy who, before his last stint in the trenches, found it sad that

the only ambition he had left was to humiliate a mailman?

Finally, the last night of his leave arrives. His mother sits long

into the night watching him sleep. At last he lets her know he is

awake. She alone has not asked foolish questions. Now she asks gently,

"Are you very much afraid?" He walks her back to bed, choked up at her

getting him good wool underwear when she is so destitute and ill. He

is in agony for what he has lost and for what is happening to her.

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NOTE: SHORTAGES From history we know that in August 1914 the

Prussian War Raw Materials Department began stockpiling and allocating

raw materials on a priority basis. Civilians weren't high on the

priority list. In November 1914 staple foods such as flour and sugar

were placed under government control, and in 1915 complete food

rationing was introduced in Germany.

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CHAPTER_8

CHAPTER 8

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Paul goes to his assignment, the training camp near his home town

where Himmelstoss "educated" Tjaden. During days of drill, evening

of poker and newspapers, he again notices the beauty of nature. At

other times he guards Russian prisoners of war in the camp

alongside. They are sick and feeble, hanging on to life by picking

over the none-too-plentiful garbage from Paul's camp and trading their

last few possessions for bread. He loves their courage and their

music, and when he guards them he cannot understand why they must be

enemies- just because, at some table, a document was signed. As he

looks at them, he knows that any soldier would see an officer as

more of an enemy; any schoolboy, a teacher as more of an enemy. But he

dare not think that way too long, any more than he could tell his

family what the front was really like. It's still his job to go back

there and kill. But he stores away his thoughts for after the war.

He can vaguely see that spreading the truth afterward may be the

only good thing he can bring out of this war.

Recall Remarque's introductory note before Chapter 1- is Paul

perhaps speaking here for Remarque himself? Could writing this book be

a task Remarque set for himself when he fought in World War I? This is

at least the second time Remarque has suggested, through his

characters, that all men are the same- that only the leaders want war.

Recall Kropp's theory for having the right people fight, in Chapter 3.

Paul's father and sister visit him the Sunday before he returns to

the front, telling him that his mother is dying and they cannot afford

the proper care. At least when it comes to his mother, Paul is not

callous: he can't choke down the jam and potato cakes she has sent. He

gives two cakes to the Russians and saves the others for his friends.

CHAPTER_9

CHAPTER 9

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Paul travels for several days and then loafs, awaiting his

company. He is worried about his friends; the company has been

designated a "flying division," one assigned wherever the need is

greatest. How relieved he is when they return, and Kat, Muller,

Tjaden, and Kropp have all survived! The slightly moldy potato cakes

serve for a meal of celebration. All are delighted to be issued

clean new gear for once, too. But they get to keep the clothing for

only eight days of drill and polish- and a visit from the Kaiser. Then

it's back to rags. The Kaiser turns out to be a disappointingly

small man (like Kantorek and Himmelstoss?) and that leads the

friends to a discussion of his power. Would there have been a war if

he had said no? Paul says he knows for sure the Kaiser did say no.

We know from history that Paul, like many people who are certain, is

wrong. Nobody directly contradicts him at this point, but later Kat

observes that every grown-up emperor wants his very own war, so

maybe the Kaiser figured it was his turn. Meanwhile everyone does

agree that if 20 or 30 leaders had said no, there couldn't be a war.

Kropp notes how strange it is: everybody's fighting for his own

fatherland, sure that he's right. There must be something they are

missing. War has always existed; it must be some kind of fever. But

that is too philosophical for the others, and it is Kropp who

finally growls that they might as well just drop the whole rotten

discussion.

Think about Kropp's contributions to all the discussions. How do his

ideas differ from those of his companions? Is he as willing as they to

speculate that his own leaders might be wrong? What do you think the

defeat of Germany will do to his ideals and emotions? Even if he

survives, will he be destroyed in exactly the same way as the others?

After Kropp's outburst, a line of white space is our only transition

to the next sentence: "Instead of going to Russia, we go up the line

again." The Setting section of this guidebook points out the

geography: they are going west, to France, despite rumors of going