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cause each event, and each event in turn causes the next one, then you

must admit that the plot of All Quiet is not set up that way. What

causes the events in this novel occurs some place in government or the

military command, and it doesn't really matter what the characters

want. The war will still grind on. In fact, you could rearrange the

order of events in the story, or even omit some of them, without

really changing the author's message.

Much the same thing is true of the characters. Although some of them

really come alive for us in vivid scenes- the stubborn, red-headed

cook; the cruel Himmelstoss; the heroic company commander dying for

his men- still, they do not change much in the course of the story,

and their wishes and desires do not affect the course of the story. As

to whether or not this lack of strong plot and characterization

harms the story, you could argue convincingly that it does not. The

whole point of the story is to show how World War I tore apart the

lives of the young men involved, and setting up the story as a

series of events in apparently random order shows exactly how little

control they had over the forces destroying them.

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12. The Ten Commandments direct people to worship God and to avoid

killing, stealing, lying, and adultery. You might begin by restating

the first sentence of the question as your topic sentence, and then

continue by giving examples of how things usually considered sinful

are expected of soldiers. The most obvious, of course, is killing. A

soldier must kill to protect his own life. The killing of Duval in

Chapter 9 or the mad charge in Chapter 6 would provide good

examples. An example of the need for stealing to supplement poor

rations could be one of the Kat stories Paul recalls in Chapter 3. A

case for lying is Paul's report to Kemmerich's mother of how Kemmerich

died. Illicit sex occurs in the evenings with the French girls

(Chapter 7) and might be defended as an assertion of life and an

attempt to regain elements of civilian life. Society- through the

army- even provides brothels for the men! As for worshiping God, the

only god the men seem to have is Chance or maybe the Earth itself (see

Chapters 4 and 6). In your concluding sentences you might comment on

which commandments have to be suspended for physical survival and

which ones seem to have more to do with psychological or emotional

survival.

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13. It's important to read a question all the way through. Note

especially the last 13 words of this one: you are expected to relate

what you say about supplies and comfort to how the war was going. It

will therefore be easier for you to answer if you take your examples

from the last few chapters of the book: the conditions at aid stations

and hospitals, the unusualness of the supply dump assignment, and,

at the front, the scarcity of food, shells, decent clothing, and

weapons, especially as compared with the apparently boundless supplies

of the British and the Americans. The contrast makes it clear that the

better supplied side is going to win. You might also include mention

of technological innovations which are simply nonexistent on Paul's

side: tanks and flamethrowers, especially, are mentioned in Chapter

11.

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14. An obvious response to this question is that pure luck sometimes

seems to determine who lives and who dies on a battlefield, that no

matter how good a soldier someone is, his skill is no guarantee that

he will survive. For examples to support such a statement, you might

use the time Paul left his trench to visit another and came back to

find it shelled. Or you might use the freak accident which killed

Kat at the end of the novel. Review the discussion in this guidebook

of the battle chapters (4, 6, and 11) or reread those chapters for

further examples.

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15. Paul himself discusses the phrase "Iron Youth" in Chapter 2.

Reread that section. In your essay, discuss each word of the phrase.

First explain why iron is not an appropriate description of skinny

boys, either physically or emotionally, and then explain why youth

is no longer a good description of the boys mentally or emotionally.

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TEST 2

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1. A 2. C 3. A 4. B 5. C 6. A 7. B

8. C 9. B 10. A

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11. Turn to Chapter 10 where Paul and Kropp are sent to a Catholic

hospital behind the lines. After Paul is well enough to move about, he

discovers just how many different categories of wounded men are in the

same hospital. Find that section and review Paul's ideas. if you agree

with Paul, you might simply state Paul's meaning and then support it

with figures from history as to how many men were killed, wounded,

or maimed for life by World War I. (See the Setting section in this

guidebook.) You might also add that seeing all these injuries neatly

categorized in a civilian setting- a place where everyone is

expected to have full use of his body- makes them seem even more

horrible than at the front where you expect injury and death.

If, on the other hand, you disagree with Paul and think that the

battlefield shows more truly what war is, you might use examples

from Chapter 6 (the long chapter detailing what an endless period of

trench warfare involved) or the screaming horses from Chapter 4. The

crying of the horses dramatizes in quite a different way how

directly contrary to nature war is.

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12. This question takes you directly to Chapter 7 in which Paul goes

home on leave. Examples follow one another quite rapidly within that

chapter. Ones you might want to include are the major who does not

seem to understand anything about war and insists on marching and

saluting, and the armchair strategists who tell Paul he couldn't

possibly understand the overall picture of the war since he is

fighting in only one part of it. Even Paul's mother, who seems more

understanding than they, reduces the war to a discussion of how to get

a safe job and the need to be careful of French women. In each example

state what happened or was said and show that it is foreign to Paul by

contrasting it with the kinds of things he has been experiencing at

the front.

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13. Paul's lies to Frau (Mrs.) Kemmerich can be explained in several

ways, some more flattering to Paul than others. Reread two sections:

the end of Chapter 2 where Paul sits next to the dying Kemmerich,

and the section in Chapter 7 where he actually talks to Kemmerich's

mother. Then decide for yourself which motive is uppermost or

whether Paul may have had mixed motives: a desire to spare her

feelings, a desire to give Kemmerich's death greater dignity than it

really had, the fact that he just didn't care and wanted to get a

distasteful job done with the least trouble, or even a revenge motive-

to deprive her of the truth because she blamed him for surviving.

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14. It is Kropp who actually says, "The war has ruined us for

everything." The comment occurs in a discussion of plans for after the

war in Chapter 5 and refers specifically to Paul, Kropp, and their

classmates. In your answer contrast Paul and his classmates with other

soldiers who have jobs or wives to return to. The Characters section

of this guidebook will help you review which soldiers have something

or someone to go back to. Consider also why it will be difficult for

Paul and his classmates to take any job seriously after the war.

What has happened to make all ordinary jobs or studies look

pointless to them?

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15. Friendship is such a constant theme of the novel that you should

be able to find examples in nearly every chapter. For a quick review

of some of the scenes involving comradeship see the Theme section of

this guidebook, and consider also how the classmates' beating of

Himmelstoss and, later, the change in Himmelstoss demonstrate

different aspects of friendship.

TERM_PAPER_IDEAS

TERM PAPER IDEAS (RALLTERM)

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PAPERS BASED ON CHAPTERS OF THE NOVEL

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1. Chapters 1 and 2: Study the obituary page in a local newspaper.

Write a similar obituary for Franz Kemmerich. Use details from the

novel for the general facts, and fill in with suitable additional

ideas as needed.

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2. Chapter 3: Choose Kat's theory of equal pay or Kropp's theory

of having the leaders fight the war personally. Argue for or against

the theory as being a good way to conduct war.

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3. Chapter 3: Discuss the way Paul and his friends took revenge on

Himmelstoss. Were they right or wrong to do what they did? (If you

wish, you may include a comparison with how Mittelstaedt treats

Kantorek in Chapter 7.)

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4. Chapter 4: Explain the statement, "To no man does the earth

mean so much as to the soldier."

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5. Chapter 5: Explain how the goose incident shows that

comradeship means everything to the soldier.

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6. Chapter 6: Explain either why "every soldier believes in

Chance" or why the men must fight "like wild beasts."

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7. Chapter 7: Why is leave "a pause that only makes everything after

it so much worse"? Consider the words and actions of Paul's family and

acquaintances in your response.

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8. Chapter 8: Paul guards Russian prisoners of war in this

chapter. What does he seem to learn from this experience? What does he

seem to have in mind as a possible goal for himself for after the war?

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9. Chapter 9: Explain the difference between "heightened caution"

and "animal fear."

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10. Chapter 9: Contrast Paul's killing of Duval with Oellrich's

sniping at the enemy. What makes their actions different?

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11. Chapter 10: Write a paper of comparison and contrast based on

the men's lives at the supply dump and at the hospital. Include such

areas as food, physical comfort, and comradeship. Explain both what

was alike in the two situations and what was different.

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12. Chapter 10: Find out more about medicine during World War I. Was

Paul's opinion of the medical profession justified? (You might also

consider a comparison with medicine during the Korean Conflict as