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shown in reruns of the television series "M*A*S*H.")

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13. Chapter 11: Something mentioned again in this chapter is the

callous attitude that a soldier must take toward an individual

death. This attitude is shared by the orderly in Chapter 2, Paul

when he is talking to Kemmerich's mother in Chapter 7, the medical

profession in Chapter 10, and the soldiers themselves. Why is this

matter-of-fact attitude necessary?

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14. Chapter 11: Study the obituary page in a local paper. Write a

similar obituary for Stanislaus Katczinsky. Use details from the novel

for the general facts, and make up suitable additional ones as needed.

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15. Chapter 12: Study the obituary page in a local paper. Write a

similar obituary for Paul Baumer. Use details from the novel for the

general facts, and make up additional ones as needed.

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16. Chapter 12: How do you feel about Paul's death in the last

chapter? What did he have left to live for? Argue that his death was

either tragedy or a blessing and explain what led you to your

conclusion.

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THE NOVEL AS A WHOLE

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1. Explain the symbolic importance of the goose incident in the

novel.

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2. Explain the symbolic importance of the screaming of the wounded

horses in the novel.

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3. Explain the importance of Kemmerich's boots in the novel. What do

they tell you about the historical situation? about the theme of

friendship?

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4. Explain the importance of Paul's daydreams in the novel. Are they

present merely as a way for Remarque to show contrasts? Do they tell

us something more about what happens to a soldier's inner values? Do

they have no importance at all?

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5. Explain the importance of the earth itself in the novel. Use

examples from several different chapters in order to show how the

earth is a source both of safety and of pain to the soldier.

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6. Discuss the effectiveness of using first person narration in this

novel. Why was it good or bad to have that particular soldier- Paul-

telling it? Why not Kat or Kropp or Detering?

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7. Discuss the author's use of contrasting scenes. How did this make

the novel more vivid? How did it make it possible for you to visualize

and to feel what was occurring? Use examples from the novel in your

answer.

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8. Go back to the introductory statement made by Remarque just

before Chapter 1. Has Remarque fulfilled the purpose he set for

himself. Explain the reasons for your answer.

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9. Explain the psychological defense mechanisms soldiers

cultivated in order to survive with some degree of sanity. What did

they do to keep the war from getting to them?

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10. Review the battle chapters (4, 6, 9, 11). List the words using

onomatopoeia to describe the sights and sounds, and explain what

effect these words have on the realism of the scenes.

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11. Paul and his friends have several discussions about war. In

addition, Paul's own thoughts go even deeper, to ideas about human

nature. List the major conclusions you believe Paul reached about

human nature. Use examples of his actions or thoughts to support

your points.

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FIRST PERSON WRITING

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A. Select one of the following situations and become that person.

Using "I," write out either your thoughts, or what you, as that

person, would have written in your private diary. Be sure to use

appropriate details from the novel, but also to make up additional

ones suitable to the person and the situation.

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1. You are Katczinsky. You have just been given a new group of

recruits to take out on their first mission. You are looking at them

and thinking about your own skills and luck and their chances of

survival.

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2. You are one of the three French girls. You are really hungry. You

see the German soldiers swimming; they look like decent types. What

are you thinking before you wave to them and start talking?

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3. You are Himmelstoss, receiving a decoration from the Kaiser.

You realize how very much you have learned. You are thinking with

shame about how you treated the recruits and how things were at the

front. You do not hold a grudge against Paul and his friends for

beating you up.

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4. You are Detering and you have had it. You are thinking about your

life before the war and building up to your decision to desert.

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B. Again, select one of the following situations and become the

person indicated. Write the letter as that person would have written

it, using his or her attitudes and ways of speaking.

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1. You are Paul's sister. Write to him about the latest developments

at home, now that your mother's cancer entirely confines her to bed

and you have the responsibility for the household. What are your

worries and concerns? How much are you willing to share or explain?

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2. You are Paul. You still have Gerard Duval's wallet and the

picture of his wife and child. No matter what Kat and Kropp said,

you still feel a need to write to Madame (Mrs.) Duval and tell her how

bravely her husband died. No one else can do it, but you want to do it

kindly. Will you actually sign your name? will you tell her you were

the one who killed him? Make these decisions and then write the

letter.

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3. You are Paul's company commander. Write to Paul's family to

comfort them after Paul dies on such a quiet day, with rumors of a

coming armistice filling the air.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

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1. If no one had told you that All Quiet on the Western Front was

set during World War I, how would you have determined what war was

involved? More specifically, how would you have known that the novel

occurs during the last two years of the First World War? Include in

your response political, geographical, and technological allusions.

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2. Read also Remarque's novel The Road Back. It discusses more fully

some of Germany's postwar problems, problems hinted at in All Quiet.

Trace the relationship of the problems from one novel into the next.

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3. It is unfortunate but true that, historically, war has led to

technological innovations. List new things first widely used in

World War I and locate references in the novel which suggest the human

impact of this technology of planes, tanks, poison gas, and so on.

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4. World War I is the first war from which we have documentary

photographs. Seek out books containing some of this photography, and

discuss the probable impact of photography itself on people's

reactions to the war.

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5. In his ironic poem "War Is Kind," written in reference to the

American Civil War, Stephen Crane contrasts the supposed glory of

war with its reality. Locate a copy of the poem and apply its

stanzas to Paul, his friends, and their families.

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6. Locate the poem "Grass" by Carl Sandburg, first published in

his 1916 connection, Chicago Poems. Identify the wars in which the

battlefields mentioned were important, and comment on the tone of

the poem: How does it relate to Remarque's view of human ability to

learn from war? to his comments on the earth itself?

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7. Explain how the two following novels develop the theme of a young

man's complete disillusionment as a result of war: The Red Badge of

Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane and All Quiet on the Western Front

(1929) by Erich Maria Remarque.

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8. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was a contemporary of Remarque's. He

too believed that war caused a loss of values. Compare the moral

collapse shown in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926) with

Remarque's themes in All Quiet (1929). How do the two novels seem to

express similar views? How do they differ?

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9. Read Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (1929) and

Remarque's A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1954). Both are love

stories set during wartime. How are the two stories similar? How do

they differ?

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10. In 1649, Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace wrote of war as a

glorious mistress in the poem, "To Lucasta, Going to the War."

Locate a copy in an anthology of English literature and cite

passages from All Quiet that suggest that Paul's elders and teachers

still held this romantic view of war as a glorious, honorable pursuit.

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11. Wilfred Owen was a very promising English poet killed in 1918 in

World War I. His poems were published in 1920. Locate Owen's "Dulce et

Decorum Est" and relate it to Remarque's account of the gas attack

in Chapter 4. You may include other references to lung injuries such

as those in the hospital section of Chapter 10.

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12 Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) often wrote about the ironies involved

in human behavior. In his poem "The Man He killed," he sounds a bit

like Paul Baumer. Locate a copy in an anthology of English poetry, and

cite passages from All Quiet on the Western Front in which Paul or

Paul and his friends reach similar conclusions.