Discussion for All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Start discussion here for All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Summary (from LitLovers)

Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front is Erich Maria Remarque’s masterpiece of the German experience during World War I.

I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . .

This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive.

About the Author

Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) is one of the best known and most widely read authors of German literature in the twentieth century.

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Discussion Questions (from LitLovers)


1. Baumer paints a grim, sadistic picture of Corporal Himmelstoss, yet credits the training period under him with supplying the recruits with attributes they lacked. Is it possible that Himmelstoss purposely employed his methods to "toughen up" the recruits and inspire esprit de corps in them? Consider Himmelstoss' encounters with his troops.

2. Why does Kat say "we are losing the war because we can salute too well"?

3. What does Haie Westhus mean when, after the recruits ambush Himmelstoss, he comments that "Revenge is black-pudding"?

4. A certain matter-of-fact quality pervades the descriptions of the wounds inflicted and received by soldiers; the face-to-face attacks with rifle butts, spades, and grenades; the sounds, smells, and colors of death and dying in this book. Why do the soldiers regard war in such an indifferent manner? Point out dialogue and events that lead you to believe that Paul and his fellows are not as nonchalant as they sometimes sound.

5. Paul says in Chapter Six, "I wonder whether, when I am twenty, I shall have experienced the bewildering emotions of love." Trace the comments and episodes throughout the book that seem to indicate that Paul does indeed experience love, in one form or another.

6. While on the front Paul daydreams about his lovely, tranquil home; when he finally makes it home on leave, he fights back visions of his comrades in the war. Why does he regret having made the trip home? In what ways does his experience there support Albert Kropp's assertion that "The war has ruined us for everything"?

7. As Paul stands guard over the Russian prisoners, he ponders how commands from higher-ups have transformed men so like his own countrymen into enemies and could just as swiftly turn them into friends. But his thoughts frighten him. What is "the abyss" to which he fears such thoughts will lead?

8. Why does Paul feel a "strange attachment" to the soldiers in his outfit once he returns from leave?

9. While on an especially risky patrol, Paul promises himself that, should some soldier hop into his shell-hole, Paul will be the first to strike. Once he carries out this strategy, why does he try to save the French soldier he has mortally wounded? Why does he later make promises to the dead man that he soon realizes, or decides, that he will not keep?

10. All Quiet on the Western Front abounds with reports of inadequate medical supplies and care, slipshod or shady procedures, and outright malpractice (refer to Chapters One and Ten). How could the government and army allow this problem to go unrectified? How could the soldiers tolerate it? Why didn't more of them report, if not revolt against, the treatment they received?

11. Why do you think the author timed Paul's death in October 1918, just before the long-rumored armistice? (Germany signed The Treaty of Versailles on November 11, 1918.)

12. When All Quiet on the Western Front debuted in the United States it drew tremendous reviews from critics. Even so, one critic tempered admiration of the book's realism with this comment: "It is not a great book; it has not the depth, the spiritual insight, the magnitude of interests which make up a great book" (The New York Times Book Review, June 2, 1929). Do you agree or disagree with this assessment? What ingredients are essential to the making of a great book?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

[Laurie]

I read this in 2014 and found it a stunning depiction of an average soldier's experience in war. So I have to disagree with assessment of the New York Times critic quoted in question 12. While I have not been in war personally, this novel and the reactions and views of the characters mirror those of soldiers in real-life war memoirs I've read. The depth of the agony the soldiers felt when their friends died and at the senselessness of the war are what stood out to me. Fortunately this novel has stood the test of time as a great war novel which helps to prove the Times critic wrong.

[Rosemarie]

I read this book many years and was impressed by the author's ability to help us see how the war affected the young soldiers. It is a very special book.
As for the critic's comment-it takes more than a few years to determine what makes a book great. The fact that we are reading and discussing this book 100 years after World War One has surely proved that critic wrong.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I finally read this book this year. Needed a book to cover Q for an alphabet challenge. It had been on my list for a while.

I'm with Laurie. I thought it was brilliant. It showed how soldiers cope. How they made home where they could. How they felt for both comrades and enemies who were also comrades.

[Missy J]

I also thought that this was a powerful novel depicting war. The reader can place him/herself in the shoes of a soldier and understand why Paul grew so close to his fellow soldiers and how the war experience alienated him from his family and community. They couldn't comprehend what he went through. Sad that another World War still occurred after this was published in 1929.