The perception of war before WW1

Before WW1
× War was seen as a great way to show patriotism, heroism, manliness, and
bravery.
× “Wars before the invention of the camera and motion pictures were depicted
through heavily romanticised paintings, often done months or even years or more
after the battle happened.”
× Further reading: Patriotism, the Great War and the Decline of Victorian
Manliness by Anthony Fletcher

Examples of poetry and art before WW1

× To Lucasta, going to Wars (1630)- Richard Lovelace
× The Charge of the Light Brigade- Alfred Lord Tennyson
× An Irish Airman Foresees his Death- William Butler Yeats

To Lucasta, going to Wars (1630)

Richard Lovelace
Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee (Dear) so much,
Lov’d I not Honour more.
✘
× The speaker leaves his chaste and pure Lucasta and is off to war because it is
honourable.
× He goes from the soothing arms of his lover to the welcoming ‘arms’ (weapons) of
battle.
× He argues that she would not think so highly of him if he did not obey the call of
duty.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

(The Charge of the Light Brigade)
× Victorian poet/ Late Romantic
× Poet Laureate in Queen Victoria's time
× Subject matter ranging from medieval legends to classical myths
× Richness of his imagery and descriptive writing
× Handled rhythm masterfully

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)

× A charge of British light
 × cavalry led against Russia in the
× Crimean war (1854).
× More or less 600 soldiers – 110 killed – 160 wounded – 375 horses killed

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

(The Charge of the Light Brigade)
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade ?
O the wild charge they made!

All the world wonder’d.

Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Historic influence:
✘ This poem was written to memorialise the suicidal charge by light cavalry over open
terrain by British forces in the Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War
(1854-56).

✘ The war was fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain and France.
 ✘ Memorable war: Florence Nightingale's innovative training of nurses to tend the
wounded.

✘ War is also noteworthy: an early example of the work of modern war correspondents.

✘ Telegraph invention made war news available to English public within hours.

✘ Soldiers were heroes. But nothing said about wrong commands by officers.

Romantic language used before 1914

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

William Butler Yeats (1865 -1939)

✘ Father was an artist

✘ Was educated in London and Dublin

✘ Founded the Irish Theatre

✘ Moved in art circles

 ✘ Wrote some of his best work after Nobel

Prize
✘ Themes: art and life; cyclical theories of life; beauty and ceremony contrasted with
modern life

✘ Although a convinced patriot, Yeats deplored the hatred and the bigotry of the Irish
Nationalist movement, and his poetry is full of moving protests against it.

How is war then visually depicted?

✘ Visual portrayal of war also changed through the ages.

✘ Visit the site mentioned on eFundi.

✘ Do we want to see the horror of war in pictures?

PROPAGANDA
information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or
point of view.

Manipulation techniques in language

• Emotive words
• Exaggeration
• Generalisations
• Repetition
• Rhetorical questions
• All inclusive pronouns: we, us, our
• Use of assertion rather than argument
• Makes reader feel embarrassed about not accepting the offer

Propaganda techniques
1. Glittering Generalities: Words of praise for a product or person;
2. Name Calling: Slanting commentary about another product or person
3. Testimonial: A famous person recommends a product or a political endorsement
4. Plain Folks: Regular people and their values such as health, family and patriotism are
portrayed as the sought after, homely image
5. Bandwagon: An appeal to be part of the group
6. Transfer: Transferring your emotions about one thing onto another.
7. Manipulating information: Use information to suit you: omission, half truths, unfair
comparisons, facts are twiste
HOW SHOULD EDUCATORS TEACH LANGUAGE SKILLS?
TEXT-BASED APPROACH
× Listening, reading, viewing and analysing texts to understand how they are produced
and constructed
× Critical interaction to evaluate text
× Offers different kinds of texts for particular purposes and audiences : Authentic texts
× Reading and writing strategies

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
× Learner receives a great deal of exposure to the target language
× Offered opportunities to practice or produce the language
× Learn the language skills through active engagement

PROCESS APPROACH
× Used when learners read and produce oral and written texts
× Encourages the need to not only focus on teaching a language skill as a product but
also nurture the process and purpose
× Engage in different stages

THE LANGUAGE SKILLS OF WRITING

WHAT IS WRITING?
× Process through which we discover, organise and communicate our thoughts to a reader
× Words and punctuation are used to form a message

STEPSIN PROCESS WRITING(EHL & EFAL)

PRE-WRITING
× Decide on the purpose and audience of a text to be written and/or designed
× Determine the requirements of format, style, point of view
× Brainstorm ideas: Mind maps, spider webs, flow charts
× Consult relevant sources, select relevant information

DRAFTING
× Use main and supporting ideas from the planning process.
× Produce a first draft Consider the purpose, audience, topic and genre.
× Read drafts critical ly and offer feedback
× Determine word choice
× Establish an identifiable voice and style by adapting language to suit the target audience
Revising, editing, proofreading and presenting

Revising
Revisions should occur several times. The following prompts can be considered:

× First revision: Are there words, or phrases that are not related to the main idea in the first
sentence?
× Second revision: Does the paragraph make sense to you and to someone else?
× Third revision: Does the last sentence give a sense of closure to the last paragraph?

Editing and proofreading

× Check for any problems in mechanics and grammar

teaching and Learning strategies

Pre-writing phase
× Purpose of this phase is to:
× Activate learners’ prior knowledge
× Situate the writing task in a specific context Introduce unknown vocabulary
× Familiarise learners with the topic of the writing task
× Plan the writing task
1) Teach vocabulary:
× Employ vocabulary teaching strategies:
× Word walls Word journals
× Decoding words
× Explicit vocabulary instruction
2) Brainstorm:
× Have learners work in small groups and discuss the topic
3) Analyse text structure :
× Provide learners with a completed text of the same type
× Have them analyse the structure so that they can apply it to their own writing
4) Plan your essay:
× Various planning methods:
× Lists Mind maps
× Four-square planning: Assist learners to organise their thoughts in a logical sequence

DRAFTING PHASE (WHILE WRITING)

× The purpose of this phase is to:
× Write the first draft of the essay
× Critically consider the audience, one’s language use, the text type and the ideas
× Organise writing logically

REVISING, EDITING, PROOFREADING AND PRESENTING PHASE

(POSTWRITING)
Purpose of this phase is to:
 × Write the final draft
× Reflect on one’s written product and the writing process

THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS (SWRL)

× The four language skills are integrated and cannot be viewed as four isolated skills In a
writing lesson, your learners are likely to make use of other language skills as well.
× A SMART task will be in a written or spoken form (productive language skills).
× Speaking
× Writing
× Listening
× Reading

HOW DO I ENSURE THAT THE LESSON I PLAN TOTEACH IS

AWRITINGLESSON?
× Teacher will teach writing strategies during the lesson.
× Teacher can teach other content in addition to writing skills.
× Purpose of the lesson will be closely linked to producing a text for a specific purpose and
audience.

traditional vs Cyclical lesson planning

Traditional lesson planning

× Linear
× Moves from top to bottom
× Static (stops at the end).

Cyclical lesson planning

× Non-sequential
× Interactive
× End is the beginning … the beginning is the end
× Dynamic

THE BACKWARD DESIGN

× When planning, we following a backward design: Meaning that we start with the end in mind
× When presenting the lesson we start at the beginning.

THE NINE LEARNING UNITS OF THE LESSON WHEEL

1) Outer white segment: learners, time and context
Consider the context of your learners:
× Who are my learners? Grade? School? Gender?
× Are they first or second language speakers of English?
× How proficient are they? BICS & CALP?
× What test or instrument did I use to determine this?
× How familiar are they with technology e.g. computers, GPS, cell phones?
 × What resources are available in this school? What is the socio-economic situation of
this school? (Feeding schemes, housing, transportation of learners?)
× Identify the duration of the lesson (how many periods will it take me to complete
this lesson?)
× TAKE NOTE: The lesson plan can take place over one day or over one week, the
lesson need not be completed in one sitting
2) Learning objectives: What do I need to teach?
× Observe the learners
× Ask other teachers
× Talk to parents
× Use brief questionnaires
× Analyse learners’ work/tests
× Get involved in extracurricular activities
3) Aims and objectives:

Step 1:
× Before formulating the lesson purpose and objectives, identify the topic you wish to
teach from the CAPS

Step 2:
× Formulate the purpose of the lesson
× After you have selected the topic of your lesson, formulate the purpose.
× Which skills, knowledge or values should you learners acquire during this lesson?
× The purpose of the lesson could refers to the holistic goal you have in mind for the
lesson.

Step 3:
Outline the objectives of the lesson
× Lesson objectives could be viewed as the steps to attain the purpose
× Smaller tasks learners have to complete in order to achieve the purpose
Purpose:
× The purpose of this lesson is for the learners to show a critical understanding of the
internal and/or external conflict experienced by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth by
ultimately, writing a diary entry.
Lesson objective
× To explore conflict in the prescribed text Macbeth, specifically internal conflict
expressed by Macbeth and external conflict between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
× To analyse Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s characters.
× To revise the writing features of a diary entry and dialogue.
× To utilise new vocabulary (descriptive language) and relate to the theme conflict.
× Revising, editing and proofreading the diary entry; checking and correcting grammar,
spelling and punctuation
4) SMART task: How will learners prove their attainment of the objectives?
× What should I consider when curating a SMART task?
× The purpose and objectives previously identified
× Why do we need a SMART task?
× Task-based approach (CAPS)
× When does the SMART task take place?
× At the end of the lesson plan (not necessarily one period)
SPECIFIC
× Specific content and clear instructions

MEASURABLE
× An action verb that results in a product that can be measured

ATTAINABLE
× Abilities, resources and time

RELEVANT
× The task is relevant and meaningful to learners in everyday life

TRACEABLE
× Refers to a process to get to the SMART task ( process approach )

5) Assessment
WHAT ASSESSMENT TOOL, METHOD, TYPE AND FORM WILL BE UTILISED?
TYPES OF ASSESSMENT
× Baseline Diagnostic Formative Summative
CHARACTERISTICS OF ASSESSMENT
× Process-oriented: monitoring the learning process
× Diagnostic: identifying areas for improvement
ASSESSMENT OF SMART TASK
× The most appropriate assessment tool is a rubric, which must be included in lesson
plan

6) Learning and teaching activities: What will the learners have to do before they can perform
the SMART task?
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
WHAT WILL THE LEARNERS HAVE TO DO BEFORE THEY CAN PERFORM THE SMART TASK?
× Learning tasks that you design as part of your lesson should include the skills and
knowledge required by the SMART task.
× Learning activities should progress from the easiest to the most difficult Learners
should be actively involved throughout the completion of learning activities
× For each learning activity, one should specify how the task will be assessed
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
When and what are you going to teach?
× The educator will design teaching moments that will precede learning activities.
× Identify the gap in knowledge or skills Specific content and skills that you will need to
TEACH your learners before they can be expected to complete the activities
× Decide HOW you are going to teach the knowledge and skills Use the prompts on the
lesson wheel

7) Resource: What resources will I utilize for teaching and learning?

× Resources should not be distractions.
× The teacher should consider the context of the school and the learners when using
resources.
× Resources should help your learners to achieve the SMART outcome
 8) Introduction: How do I start my lesson?
× How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any
preconceived notions about it?
× What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic
that students might be familiar with?
× Activates prior knowledge
× Provides a direct link to the SMART task

9) Pertinent question: How will I make a connection with other subjects (teaching across the
curriculum)?
When designing pertinent questions, the teacher answers the following questions on behalf
of the learners:
× What do they have to learn? Why do they have to learn this?
× How will they use it?
× When and what are you going to teach?
× Open-ended (elicits varied and individual responses) Relevant (transports learners
from the classroom to the outside world) Motivating (arouses interest and curiosity
in the learners) Relevant to the learning content and SMART task

PERTINENT QUESTIONS

× How do the arts shape, as well as reflect, a culture? Is there ever a “just” war? How
can I sound more like a native speaker? Who is a true friend?

NON-PERTINENT QUESTIONS

× What is a variable in scientific investigations? What key event sparked the World War
I? What are common Spanish colloquialisms? Who is Maggie’s best friend in the
story?

WAR THEME:

REALISM IN WAR
× Instilled perceptions vs. the reality endured in the war
× Patriotic and idealistic views shaped notions of reality
× Influences of propogranda
× A stark contrast between Brooke's "The Solider" and Owen's "Futility" in relation to
the portrayal of the theme of realism in war

A RENDITION OF BROOKE'S "THE SOLIDER" BY SOPHIE OKONEDO”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

× Brooke volunteered for service in the war. He joined the Royal
× Navy Volunteer Reserve; the group's first destination was Antwerp, Belgium, where it
stayed through the beginning of 1915.
× The area around Antwerp was not volatile at this time, though, and the Reserve saw
no military action during its entire stay in Belgium" (Poetry Foundation, s.a.).
 × "The lull in fighting turned into a fruitful period for Brooke, for it was then that he
produced his best-known poetry, the group of five war sonnets titled "Nineteen
Fourteen."" (Poetry Foundation, s.a.).
× These included "Peace", "Safety", "The Dead" and "The Solider"
× Both his third and fourth sonnets were titled, "The Dead"
× "The Solider" was the last of the sonnet sequence
× "Brooke contracted blood poisoning from an insect bite; he died on April 23, 1915"
(Poetry Foundation, s.a.).
REALISM OF WAR

If I should die, think only this of me:

2 That there’s some corner of a foreign field
3That is for ever England. There shall be
4 In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6 Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
7A body of England’s, breathing English air,
8 Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10 A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11 Gives somewhere back the thoughts by
England given;
12Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13 And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14 In hearts at peace, under an English
heaven.

× The poem reflects the patriotism that the British experienced at the outbreak of the
war.
× Patriotism is the devotion, support and deep love for one's country
× "The Solider" is a love letter that Brooke wrote for his country
× Brooke glorifies and alludes to the honourable sacrifice to die for one's country.
× Specifically, England.
× Romanticises and praises England
× Fosters an idealistic view of what it would be like to die in battle, which he did not
experience himself
× The poem is a sonnet
THE READING OF OWEN'S "FUTILITY" BY ALEX JENNINGS

REALISM OF WAR
× The poem talks about the death of a young soldier
× "Futility" means pointlessness or uselessness Owen questions the point of war, life
and religion
× He demands answers
× Sound devices utilized in the poem reinforces a cry
× Owen is depicted as making an appeal to the Reader "Think"
× Tone of frustration
× Reinforced through rhetorical questions and the title

The Full Text of “Futility”

1Move him into the sun—

2Gently its touch awoke him once,
3At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
4Always it woke him, even in France,
5Until this morning and this snow.
6If anything might rouse him now
7The kind old sun will know.
8Think how it wakes the seeds—
9Woke once the clays of a cold star.
10Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
11Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
12Was it for this the clay grew tall?
13—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
14To break earth's sleep at all?
WAR THEME:

DEHUMANISATION & ALIENATION

× Alienation characterises the emotional isolation and estrangement endured by

soldiers from the values of society and their family
× Dehumanisation is a pursuit that denies a consideration of humanity. That is,
human qualities such as morality and compassion - among others - are stripped.

A RENDITION OF OWNEN'S "ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH" BY SEAN

BEAN
× Juxtaposition in title as well as irony
× "Anthem" and "Doomed Youth"
× Owen portrays an image of "young" men going to battle, who - even if they return
alive - would have lost their youth
× Structure conforms to a Petrarchan sonnet
× Ironic as sonnets are often utilised for romantic writing
× Octave (first 8 lines) is concerned with the sounds of battle and death
× Sestet (last 6 lines) is portrays muted grief
× Dehumanisation
× "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?"
× Supported by diction such "monstrous"
× Owen compares the battle ground to a funeral (extended metaphor)
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
WAR THEME:

HORROR OF WAR
× This theme considers the gruesome violence that was endured by soldiers and the
atrocities of the war in its entirety. The inclusion of this theme in poetry works aims
toreveal the realities of the war to the reader
× Anti-war poem
× One long stanza forces the reader to interpret the text as one long thought
× Stream of consciousness
× English soldier in World War I that is trapped in the trenches "darkness crumbles"
× The word "crumbles" casts images of collapsing, dissolving and decaying structures or states
of being
× The speaker has not chosen to interpret the beginning of a new day as a sign of new
possibilities or hope, it is the same “as ever.”
× As the two opposing sides of this battle sit in their trenches, separated by the brutal stretch
of no man’s land, alienated from one another, they dwell in their hatred for the “other.”
× The rat, on the other hand, has no such loyalties or patriotic duties. He is free to move from
country to country, trench to trench- whenever he pleases.
The darkness crumbles away.
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet’s poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver—what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe—
Just a little white with the dust.
WAR THEME:

DEATH

THE READING OF MCCRAE'S "IN FLANDERS FIELD" BY LEONARD

COHEN
× McCrae wrote the poem in 1915 as a memorial to those who died in a World War I battle
fought in a region of Belgium
× The poem describes the tragedy of the soldiers' deaths as well as the ongoing natural beauty
that surrounds their graves
× The poem addresses the question of the next generation's responsibility to carry on the
soldiers' battle
× The speaker is “the Dead”
× The speaker (using the first-person plural voice of “we”) is actually a group of speakers, all of
whom died in the fields of Flanders, Belgium
× Deaths were untimely and tragic
× "Short days ago”
× Death without peace
× “failing hands”
× “shall not sleep”
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
OLD QUITE ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Plot Summary
All Quiet On The Western Front begins somewhere near the German/French front
during World War I. It is told by Paul Baumer, a 19-year-old solider. He and his friends
are eating a well-deserved meal after fighting and encountering heavy losses. After the
meal Paul, Kropp, and Muller go to use the outdoor toilets and play cards.
Paul and some of his comrades all attended school together and were encouraged to
join the army by their teacher, Kantorek. Now, as soldiers, they know that Kantorek has
little understanding of the war. One of their friends, Kemmerich, is dying in the hospital.
They go to visit him. While there, Muller asks him for his boots. They bribe an orderly to
give him some pain medication and leave.
When Paul visits Kemmerich again, Kemmerich gives him his boots to give to Muller
because he knows he is going to die. Paul does as he asks. New recruits come up from
training, and they soon learn the hard lessons of fighting on the front. Paul and his
comrades pass the time watching airplane battles and smoking. They are told that
Himmelstoss, the corporal who abused them in training camp, is being sent to the front,
and are happy that they will be able to take revenge against him.
They are sent to the front to string barbed wire. While there, they get shelled and have
to take cover. A new recruit that Paul helps is badly hurt. All of this Paul takes for
granted. After the shelling, they return to camp, where that pass the time killing lice.
Paul's friend Tjaden encounters Himmelstoss and is rude to him. Himmelstoss reports
him to the commander, Bertink, for insubordination. The Lieutenant gives Tajden a light
punishment, and lectures Himmelstoss about the realities of the front versus training
camp. Paul and Kat, their mentor, steal geese and cook them.
The men are sent to the front for an offensive. They spend many days in trenches with
the tension building, until the fighting finally begins. The fighting is madness and many
men are killed. Finally, after many weeks, they are sent back to camp, but with only
of the original 150 men who went to the front.
They get some rest time while their numbers are being built back up, and they use it
well, relaxing and enjoying themselves. Paul and his friends see some French girls
across the canal from their camp, and sneak away that night to give the girls food and
have sex.
Before his company is sent back to the front, Paul is given leave to go home and then to
have a month of training. He takes the train home. When he arrives, he discovers that
his mother has cancer. He feels strange being back at home, and avoids talking to
people about the war, because it is clear to him that they don't understand what is going
on. He finds out from an old classmate that Kantorek, his teacher, has been drafted as a
soldier. He visits Kemmerich's mother, who cries and begs him to tell her about her
son's death. Paul spends more time with his mother, but by the time he leaves for
training, he regrets having gone home at all because he is miserable.

During training, he spends most of his time watching the Russian prisoners encamped
next to the training camp. He feels sorry for them because they are just soldiers like
himself. After a month, his father and sister visit him and tell him that his mother is in the
hospital getting an operation. He returns to the front with a heavy heart.
Back at the front, Paul fears that leave has made him soft, and is scared of the war
around him. He ends up trapped in a hole during shelling, and then kills an enemy
soldier with his knife. He is very upset because he knows that he has killed another
human being, but he pushes the feelings away.
He and his comrades guard a bombed-out, deserted village for a few weeks, and live
happily cooking for themselves. Next, they are sent to evacuate a village, where Paul
and his friend Albert are both wounded. They are sent to the hospital by train, where
Paul is fixed up. Albert, on the other hand, loses his leg. They spend a long time there
healing, and befriend other soldiers in their room. While there, Paul walks around the
hallways and sees all of the death and destruction going on, and realizes that his
hospital is just one of thousands like it, full of dying boys. He is overwhelmed by the
hopelessness of war.
Paul is sent back to the front, where many of his friends have been killed or get killed
soon after he arrives. Finally, on a hot summer day, Kat is hit. Paul picks him up and
carries him to safety, but it is too late--a splinter from a grenade is stuck in Kat's head,
and he has died. Paul is now the last of his comrades. A few months later, with talk of
peace going on around him, Paul gives up and dies, with a look of relief on his face.

Major Characters
× Paul Baumer: The narrator of the book. Paul is a young solider who witnesses and
reports the horrors of World War One and how it changes him forever. The story
follows Paul at the front, in camp, on leave, in training, and in the hospital.
× Albert Kropp: Paul's clear-thinking classmate and best friend from school. He is
Paul's closest friend next to Kat. He loses his leg due to an injury, and is hospitalized
at the same place Paul is.
× Muller: The scientist of the group, who still studies and thinks about physics during
battles. He's somewhat rude. He takes Kemmerich's boots after Kemmerich dies.
× Tjaden: A tiny locksmith with a huge appetite who eats all the time. More than any
of the others, he hates Himmelstoss with a passion and can't wait for revenge
against him.
× Haie Westhus: A giant boy about 19, he is a peat-digger by trade. He is Kat's main
helper.
× Katczinsky: The old man of Paul's company and his closest friend, Kat teaches all the
young men how to survive. He is the older soldier who can get anything at the drop
of a hat.
× Kemmerich: Paul's classmate who dies in the hospital. Paul feels responsible for him
and must tell his mother of his death.
× Himmelstoss: The cruel man who trained them when they enlisted. When he is sent
to the front, his first fight teaches him a lesson and he is much nicer to the men after
that.

Minor Characters
× Ginger: The company cook. Ginger tries to be in control and bossy about the food,
but the men have no respect for him and mock him.
× Leer: Paul's rude, crass classmate, who talks about sex a lot. He is the most
experienced of Paul's friends. He is killed by the same shell as Bertink.
 × Detering: A peasant farmer, he misses his farm more than anything. Ultimately, this
leads to him deserting, but he is captured and court-martialed.
× Kantorek: Paul's old school teacher, who convinced the boys to sign up. He is made
fun of because his patriotism is blind to the horrors of war. Later in the book, he
becomes a soldier and his own student bosses him around.
× Joseph Behm: A classmate who is bullied by Kantorek into joining the army, and dies
almost immediately in combat.
× Bertink: The Company Commander of the Second Company, Paul's company. Bertink
is a smart, brave soldier who understands his men.
× Sister: Paul's sister, who is caring for their sick mother.
× Mother: Dying of cancer, she worries about Paul from her sick-bed. She is the only
person who doesn't ask Paul for details about the war.
× Father: Paul's father is proud of him, and tries to get Paul to tell him war stories,
much
× to Paul's annoyance. He is hard working, but very poor, and must work extra hard to
pay Paul's mother's hospital bills.
× Mittelstaedt: Paul's friend who is stationed back in his home town and gets to boss
Kantorek around.
× Josef: The man with the shooting license in the hospital. He is a little crazy, but
knows a lot about hospital life, because he has been there so long.
× Peter: The man who tries to avoid going to the dying room and succeeds, surviving
through force of will.
× Lewandowski: An older man in Paul's hospital room. He has sex with his wife when
she visits.

Objects/Places
× The Front: The line that Paul is a part of between the German army and their French,
English, and American enemies. The front is not simply an area, but the embodiment
of dehumanizing horror.
× Kemmerich's boots: These comfortable boots are passed from Kemmerich to Muller,
and from Muller to Paul, because the men are comrades. The boots are a sign of the
pragmatism of the soldiers: they have no problem asking for them so that they can
lay claim when their friend dies.
× Haricot beans: The main food of the soldiers at the front.

Quotes
× Quote 1: "The leader of our group, shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of
age, with a face of the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders, and a remarkable nose for
dirty weather, good food, and soft jobs." Chapter 1, pg. 3
× Quote 2: "The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and
intestines. Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they
give an intimate flavour to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest
indignation. It is impossible to express oneself in any other way so clearly and pithily.
Our families and our teachers will be shocked when we go home, but here it is the
universal language." Chapter 1, pg. 8
× Quote 3: "One could sit like this forever." Chapter 1, pg. 9
× Quote 4: "The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be
a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see
more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy.
Katczinsk said that was a result of their upbringing. It made them stupid. And what
Kat said, he had thought about." Chapter 1, pg. 11
× Quote 5: "Yes, that's the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron
Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? That is
long ago. We are old folk." Chapter 1, pg. 18
× Quote 6: "We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial.
Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by."
Chapter 2, pg. 21
× Quote 7: "That is Kat. If for one hour in a year something eatable were to be had in
some one place only, within that hour, as if moved by a vision, he would put on his
cap, go out and walk directly there, as though following a compass, and find it."
Chapter 3, pg. 40
× Quote 8: "'You take it from me, we are losing the war because we can salute too
well.'" Chapter 3, pg. 40
× Quote 9: "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay/And the war would be
over and done in a day." Chapter 3, pg. 41
× Quote 10: "To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far
away from its centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly,
inescapably into itself." Chapter 4, pg. 55
× Quote 11: "'The war has ruined us for everything.'" Chapter 5, pg. 87
× Quote 12: "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had
to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are
cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no
longer, we believe in the war." Chapter 5, pg. 88
× Quote 13: "We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of
uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can
determine where it will fall." Chapter 6, pg. 101
× Quote 14: "Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns,
handgrenades- words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world." Chapter
6, pg 132
× Quote 15: "There is a distance, a veil between us." Chapter 7, pg. 160
× Quote 16: "'But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your
× hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and
our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never
tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours,
and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony--
Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?'" Chapter 9, p. 223
× Quote 17: "I will come back again! I will come back again!" Chapter 10, pg. 258
× Quote 18: "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. I see how
peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly,
obediently, innocently slay one another." Chapter 10, pg. 263
 × Quote 19: "Our thoughts are clay, they are moulded with the changes of the days;-
when we are resting they are good; under fire, they are dead. Fields of craters within
and without." Chapter 11, pg. 271
× Quote 20: "Trenches, hospitals, the common grave--there are no other possibilities."
Chapter 11, pg. 283
× Quote 21: "Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and
turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is as usual.
Only thE Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing more."
Chapter 11, pg. 291
× Quote 22: "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can
× take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them
without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and
my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek
its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." Chapter 12, pg. 295
× Quote 23: "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole
front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the
Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping.
Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an
expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." Chapter 12, pg. 296

Topic Tracking: Comrades

Chapters 1-2
Comrades 1: The bond between soldiers is very important. Here, Paul's comrades are
introduced, and their closeness is illustrated. Their defiance of Ginger is as a group, and
so is their reading mail together on the toilet.
Comrades 2: Training camp was an awful experience, and largely meaningless, but it
forged a tight bond between Paul and his friends. This bond is part of what helps them
survive at the front.
Chapters 3-4
Comrades 3: The downtime between trips to the front is when each man's individual
personalities comes out. They bicker and argue, but that is part of the camaraderie.
Here we see the group as individuals, but not in a way that breaks up the strength of the
group.
Comrades 4: The boys are excited because Himmelstoss, the man who united them
through hate, is now on their territory. They become closer through their reactions to
bad things, like to the front or to Himmelstoss.
Chapters 5-6
Comrades 5: Tjaden and Kropp get in trouble with Himmelstoss, and are locked up for
the night. Paul and Kat, in order to help their friends, cook stolen geese, feed the
prisoners, and play cards to keep them entertained and happy.
Chapters 7-8
Comrades 6: As Himmelstoss once brought the comrades together, now the horror of
war has humbled him and made him their comrade. They now accept him especially
after being given good food.
Comrades 7: Here is an example of personal desire breaking the bond of the comrades:
they get Tjaden drunk so they can leave him behind when they meet the girls. Again,
like the arguing earlier, away from the front their individual personalities sometimes win
out over camaraderie.
Comrades 8: Back at home, Paul feels very separated from the people who don't
understand the front. His encounters with people and memories of his past only make
him miss his comrades, who are now the only people he can truly relate to.
Comrades 9: At training camp, Paul realizes that he has more in common with the
Russian prisoners than the leaders of his country. He and the Russians are all soldiers.
In that way, they are more comrades than Paul and someone who has never been to
the front are. However, Paul is drawn to them because he is separated from his true
comrades back at the front. When it is time to go back, the Russians are forgotten.
Chapters 9-10
Comrades 10: At first, when Paul returns from home, he is uneasy because his time
away seems to have lessened the bond to his comrades. However, at the same time, he
is happy because he is back with his dearest friends.
Comrades 11: Again, Paul bonds to an enemy soldier. The man he kills becomes his
comrade, for the time when he is trapped and alone. Paul again bonds to the enemy
when separated from his own comrades.
Comrades 12: Back with his true comrades, Paul can dismiss the man he killed. They
give him strength to get past the horror he went through.
Comrades 13: Albert is one of Paul's closest friends, and he goes through great lengths
to stay with him so they can support and take care of each other in the hospital. Paul
will do anything, including bribery, to stay with his comrade.
Comrades 14: The men, in helping Lewandowski to have sex, are acting out of
brotherhood. Lewandowski, can trust them to keep an eye out and to be discreet
because they take care of each other.
Chapters 11-12
Comrades 15: One by one, the men closest to Paul at the front are picked off and killed.
More and more Paul's strength, his comrades, is gone, leaving him alone.
Comrades 16: Paul, alone as the last of his group, feels that nothing more can be taken
from him, because the thing that gave him strength, his comrades, has already been
taken. He gives up because the war has taken his only friends who understand him.

Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost

Chapters 1-2
Innocence Lost 1: Humorously, Paul points out that the war has taken their modesty. He
laughs when he thinks of how shocked their families would be to see the way they act
now.
Innocence Lost 2: When Paul says "old folk," it is a statement of how war destroys a
boy's innocence in such a way that there is no turning bad. Like aging, they have been
changed forever.
Innocence Lost 3: The end of their innocence begins in training, where the corporal
beats it out of them. Even that, however, is not the true end of their innocence. It is just
the beginning, because the war at the front destroys even more.
Chapters 3-4
Innocence Lost 4: Here Paul witnesses the destruction of an innocent person, the new
recruit. The episode of the boy soiling his underwear shows that he is too innocent for
the front, and then he is critically hurt before he can learn and adapt.
Chapters 5-6
Innocence Lost 5: Again, with this quote, Paul comes back to the idea of the permanent
damage that has been done to his soul. He will never get his innocence back, no matter
what he does.
Innocence Lost 6: Happiness and satisfaction come from stolen food and survival. At
times like this, Paul thinks of the things he misses from home and wonders if he will
ever be able to love them again. On some level he is sad that he gains so much
pleasure from food and rest, that he has been stripped so bare.
Chapters 7-8
Innocence Lost 7: When Paul and Kropp look at the picture, they see a girl they can
only dream of. The man in the picture makes them angry because they cannot compete
with him. They are dirty and damaged while he is clean. They rip him away so they can
love the girl without being reminded of how far gone they are.
Innocence Lost 8: Paul's misery over the encounter with the girl is because nothing, not
even passion, can pull him away from the front. Later, when the girl doesn't care that he
is leaving, the lack of innocence in their relationship bothers him even more.
Innocence Lost 9: The war has placed a wall not just between Paul and his past, but
between him and his family as well as those who have not had their innocence taken
Innocence Lost 10: Although he is trying to be kind, Paul's lie to Kemmerich's mother
signifies the ultimate act of lost innocence. He swears on all that is important, but there
is literally nothing important left to him. He is empty inside.
Chapters 9-10
Innocence Lost 11: Here, Paul displays another example of his belief that he is no
longer worthy of good things. He is dirty and doesn't want to get in the bed, because to
him the bed is innocent, while he is not. In the same way, the fact that the nurse is
young and pretty makes him unable to ask her for help urinating, because to him, she is
an innocent.
Innocence Lost 12: Here Paul thinks about himself and everyone else whose innocence
has been destroyed. What is most terrible is that it was done on someone's orders, and
not for any good reason of the people involved.
Innocence Lost 13: The importance of Lewandowski's desire, regardless of the fact that
it meant having sex in front of everyone, shows that modesty and innocence are not
concerns to them, even in the hospital.

Topic Tracking: Isolation

Chapters 1-2
Isolation 1: Paul observes that the soldiers his own age are isolated from life because
they have not been let to establish anything for themselves. Unlike the older farmers,
they have gone from school to war, and don't know anything else. They are cut off from
the world they are defending.
Chapters 5-6
Isolation 2: Here, Kropp observes the same thing Paul did previously. The boys from
Paul's school have nothing going for them. They are separated and isolated from life.
Chapters 7-8
Isolation 3: Part of the reason why Paul was upset about his encounter with the girl is
that he feels cut off from important things, like love and passion. Although better than a
brothel, there was little meaning between him and the French girl, and it gave him no
happiness. There was simply no true connection.
Isolation 4: Here, we see how cut off Paul is from everyone. While at the front he has
his comrades, but the experiences he has seen have made it impossible for him to
relate to those who don't share his experiences. His homecoming is miserable because
he is completely isolated.
Isolation 5: The man telling him that as a soldier, he doesn't understand the war, is
another example of how different Paul is from the people he once respected.
Isolation 6: Paul cries and wishes he had never come home because it has only made
him aware of how isolated he now is from his family and his townsfolk. The only person
he can enjoy being with was Mittelstaedt, a fellow solider. He is powerless to help his
sick mother, who cannot understand what he has been through.
Isolation 7: Since he no longer knows anyone at the training camp, Paul watches the
sickly Russian prisoners. Like him, they are cut off from everything.
Chapters 9-10
Isolation 8: Paul's isolation doesn't end when he returns to the front. Instead, he must
spend the first few days completely alone, because he cannot find his comrades.
Isolation 9: Separated from his comrades, Paul loses heart. When he hears Kat's voice,
he begins to respond, but shelling traps him away from them.

Isolation 10: Peter, the man who is taken out to die, is a symbol of the battle against
isolation. In Paul's room, there is a community. By going to the Dying Room, Peter is
removed from that community.
Chapters 11-12
Isolation 11: Within the first few pages of chapter 11, all of Paul's close companions
except Kat have been killed. The isolation Paul feels is becoming more real as he loses
his comrades.
Isolation 12: Paul dies alone. He gives in to the isolation and the end comes.

Chapter 1
The book opens with Paul Baumer, the narrator, and the rest of Second Company a few
miles from the front. They have just returned from the front the night before, having
suffered unexpected and heavy losses. Half of the men from the company are dead or
wounded. Ginger, the cook, has made a meal for 150 men instead of the 80 that are left.
The men get out of bed around noon to line up for food. First in line is Albert Kropp, then
Muller, Leer, and Paul. All four boys, aged 19, were in school together, and joined the
army on the same day. Behind them is Tjaden, a 19-year-old locksmith; Haie Westhus,
a 19-year-old peat-digger; Detering, a peasant farmer, and Stansislaus Katczinsky: "the
leader of our group, shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of age, with a face of
the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders, and a remarkable nose for dirty weather, good food,
and soft jobs." Chapter 1, pg. 3
Once in line, the men get impatient when Ginger ignores them. The men dislike Ginger
because he is a coward and won't bring food very close when the men are being
shelled. He tells them that he can't serve them until everyone is there. Katczinsky tells
him of the losses they suffered, and Ginger gets angry that he has cooked too much. He
doesn't want to give out all the food or the double ration of tobacco. Kat, angry, tells him
that he has cooked for Second Company and he should give everything to Second
Company. They are about to fight him when the company commander arrives and
orders Ginger to give all the food as well as the full bread and tobacco rations to the
men. Ginger, flustered, gives the food out to the men. Everyone happily eats the huge
meal, and Muller and Tjaden even take extra. After the meal, the stuffed men read their
mail. Paul, Kropp, and Muller decide to go to the bathroom to play cards.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 1
Out in the meadow near camp, there is a common latrine and several small boxes that
the men use to go to the bathroom. Paul thinks back to how embarrassed they were
when they were first forced to go to the bathroom in a common room as recruits. Now,
they don't care. They have no modesty, and going to the bathroom outdoors is an
enjoyable experience.
"The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and intestines.
Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they give an
intimate flavour to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest indignation.
It is impossible to express oneself in any other way so clearly and pithily. Our families
and our teachers will be shocked when we go home, but here it is the universal
language." Chapter 1, pg. 8
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 1
They pull three boxes together, read their mail, and smoke. Using a lid from a margarine
tub as a table, they sit and play skat, a three-man card game. "One could sit like this
forever."Chapter 1, pg. 9 Sometimes they mention something about the battle, but they

never really discuss it. There is no need to. Kropp asks if anyone has seen their friend,
Kemmerich, who is in the hospital, wounded. They decide to go visit him later that
afternoon. Kropp pulls out a letter from their old teacher, Kantorek, who sends his
greetings. They all laugh, trying to imagine him there on the front.
Paul thinks back to Kantorek, who encouraged them all to join the army. Kantorek was a
small, short man. He lectured them so much about the importance of joining the army
and patriotism that he convinced his entire class to volunteer. Only Joseph Behm
though twice about joining, but he didn't want the others to think he was a coward. None
of the boys knew what going to war meant, but they went anyway.
"The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a
misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more
clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy. Katczinsky
said that was a result of their upbringing. It made them stupid. And what Kat said, he
had thought about." Chapter 1, p. 11
Ironically, Behm was one of the first of Paul's class to die. He was left for dead on the
front, and when he tried to crawl back, blinded, he was killed before anyone could help
him. Paul believes that they cannot blame Kantorek for Behm's death. There were too
many teachers and older people in authority who sent boys who trusted them off to war,
and would never know the truth of combat.
Paul, Muller, and Kropp go to the hospital to visit Kemmerich. The hospital stinks of
infection. Kemmerich is very weak. Someone has stolen his watch off his wrist. He will
not live long. His foot has been amputated, but he doesn't know it. The others don't tell
him. They try to be encouraging, telling him he will be going home soon, but Kemmerich
can barely respond. Paul thinks of Kemmerich's mother, who cried when they left home
and asked Paul to look out for him. Now, Paul can barely look at Kemmerich's waxy
skin.
Muller puts Kemmerich's things underneath his bed. He sees Kemmerich's prized pair
of boots, more comfortable than what they wear, and asks Kemmerich for them. He
wants to get them before they are stolen as well. Kemmerich doesn't want to give them
up, and Paul stops Muller before he can argue. After a while, they leave, bribing an
orderly to give him some morphine for his pain. As the walk back to their camp, Muller
talks about how nice the boots are. Better that he should have them when Kemmerich
dies than anyone else. There is no hope for him. Paul thinks about the letter he will
have to write to Kemmerich's mother. Kropp gets very angry and swears, upset about
Kemmerich. Once he calms down, he tells them that Kantorek called them "the Iron
Youth" in his letter.
"Yes, that's the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth!
We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? That is long ago. We are old
folk." Chapter 1, pg. 18
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 2

Chapter 2
Paul thinks of his home and the writing he used to do. Now, writing poems and plays is
completely unreal to him. There is no connection for him or any of the younger men to
their home. The older men had lives they will return to, but for Paul and his companions,
there is nothing to return to because his life hasn't begun yet. Their lives are empty, but
they are not sad.
Topic Tracking: Isolation 1
Paul knows that Muller is very sympathetic about Kemmerich. He truly cares about him.
But they all understand that Kemmerich can no longer use the boots, and Muller wants
them because they no longer serve a purpose. As a foot-solider, it is better that he
should have them than an orderly at the hospital. "We have lost all sense of other
considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us.
And good boots are hard to come by." Chapter 2, pg. 21 Paul thinks back to when they
first enlisted, when they were young and innocent. They were romantic and had no real
plans for the future. They were just boys. But by the end of their training, they had their
innocence knocked out of them by the army and its drills. There were just tools, not
heroes, and even the drills they learned during training were mostly unimportant.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 3
At the start of their training, Paul, Kropp, Muller, and Kemmerich were assigned to No. 9
platoon, where their commander was Corporal Himmelstoss, a short little man who was
a strict and mean officer. Before the army, he was just a postman. Himmelstoss was
especially mean to the boys, forcing them to do all kinds of ridiculous drills to break their
spirits. He forced Paul to do things like clean the Corporal's Mess with a toothbrush. He
made them clear snow with a hand-broom and a dust-pan in the cold until a superior
officer stopped him. He heaped many different abuses on the boys. Finally, Paul and
Kropp rebelled against him and refused to follow his orders. After that, he abused them
and called them swine, but his power was gone. Through the whole training period, his
abuse made the boys hard and mean, but it gave them a sense of comradeship that
made the trenches of the real war survivable.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 2
Paul goes to visit Kemmerich again the next morning. More wounded are flooding into
the hospital. Kemmerich now knows that his foot has been amputated. Paul tries to
encourage him, but Kemmerich knows he is going to die. He gives Paul his boots to
give to Muller. Paul stays by him, sad that someone he grew up with is dying so horribly.
He has seen death before, but it is harder when it is an old friend. Kemmerich slowly
fades, barely talking. Finally, when he begins to die, Paul goes to get a doctor. The
doctor passes him off to an orderly, because he has no time to look at Kemmerich. The
orderly indifferently tells Paul that Kemmerich is the seventeenth to die that day. Paul
takes his things and leaves. On his way back to camp, he feels the breeze in his face
and begins to run, angry at Kemmerich's death but happy to be alive himself. At camp,
he gives Muller the boots, and they drink rum and tea.

Chapter 3
Replacements for the many dead men of Second Company come, and many are
younger than Paul or his friends. Kropp calls them infants. Kat joins them as they, old
veterans, go and inspect the new men. Kat asks one young man what he's had to eat
lately, and the new boy complains of the food they've been eating. Kat mocks him and
tells him that they often get bread made from sawdust. He offers the boy Haricot beans,
which he has stashed in a tub. Paul and Kropp are amazed at Kat's stash of food, which
he got from Ginger. He gives some to the boy, and tells him that the next time he wants
some, he will have to give Kat some tobacco or a cigar in trade. Paul and Kropp, of
course, get it for free.
Kat is a resourceful man. He's smart, experienced, and can get things out of nothing.
Paul is happy that he and Kropp have him as a friend. One time, in unknown territory,
Kat took Haie and found straw to sleep on. Since they were all very hungry, he asked an
artilleryman about food. The man laughed at him, but Kat just went back out. The others
didn't have a lot of hope, but Kat soon returned with two loaves of bread and a bag of
horse meat. The artilleryman was amazed, but Kat didn't give him anything. Instead, the
other men ate well and went to sleep happy.
"That is Kat. If for one hour in a year something eatable were to be had in some one
place only, within that hour, as if moved by a vision, he would put on his cap, go out and
walk directly there, as though following a compass, and find it." Chapter 3, pg. 40
The men sit out in the sun next to the hut. They have just finished practicing saluting for
an hour because Tjaden didn't salute an officer properly. Kat says, "'You take it from me,
we are losing the war because we can salute too well.'" Chapter 3, pg. 40 Kropp and
Kat begin to argue about the war while laying a bet on an airfight overhead. Kat, with his
experience, quotes a rhyme: "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay/And the
war would be over and done in a day." Chapter 3, pg. 41 Kropp, argues that war should
be like a sports event: the generals should be given clubs and fight it out in an arena
while the people watch. They drop the subject, and the men begin to reminisce about
hot summers at the training barracks and drills they were forced to practice--a long way
away from the front line. Overhead, the German airplane is shot down, and Kropp, the
loser, gives Kat money for a beer. They talk about Himmelstoss and why he's so mean,
and Kat tells them that human nature makes men like Himmelstoss desire power and
abuse power. Only in the army are men free to abuse others and force them to do
pointless things. Discipline is good to learn, but what they learned in training is pointless
and everyone knows it.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 3
As they talk about this, Tjaden rushes up with news: Himmelstoss, their hated Corporal,
has been ordered to the front. Tjaden holds a grudge against Himmelstoss, because he
was abused by him more than anyone else during training. Himmelstoss, angry at
Tjaden for wetting the bed, forced him to sleep in a bunk under another bedwetter as
punishment. They haven't seen him since the night before they left for the front, when
they took revenge on him for his abuse. Paul, Haie, Kropp, and Tjaden waited for him
one dark night when he was coming back from the pub, pulled a bed-cover over his
head, pulled his pants down, and beat him with a whip. Haie punched him twice in the
head, and the boys ran away. He never found out who attacked him. Now, Himmelstoss
will be coming to the real war, where the boys know more than he does.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 4

Chapter 4
Paul's group is sent to the front to string barbed wire. They ride in the dark, jammed in
the back of lorries, or trucks. They drive without lights to avoid alerting the other side.
During the ride, Paul hears geese cackling from a house, and he and Kat make plans to
return. At the artillery lines, the group is surrounded by gunfire. Kat predicts that the
English will bombard them soon. Paul and the others aren't afraid, but are tensely aware
of what is going on around them and ready to take cover.
"To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its
centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly, inescapably into
itself." Chapter 4, pg. 55 This is how Paul thinks of the front. At the front, he lives on
instinct. He clutches the ground for protection, doing what has become natural. That is
how he survives. He has no need to explain it. He and his companions simply let animal
instinct take over at the front.
They arrive at a wooded area and get out of the trucks. A column of men pass by them
in the mist as the trucks leave. The men load up with barbed wire and begin to walk to
where it needs to be placed. They are ordered to put out their cigarettes, to avoid being
a target. The horizon glows red, and they can see rockets being fired. Searchlights
cross the sky, shooting down an airplane. The men begin stringing the barbed wire,
attaching it to iron stakes. Paul cuts his hand while working. After a few hours, they are
done with the job and settle in to wait for the trucks to pick them up. Paul falls asleep,
but is awakened by shells exploding nearby. The new recruits are scared. The men
begin to crawl away quickly as the shelling gets closer. One hits in the middle of their
group. Paul bumps into a new recruit, scared to death, holding his head to the ground.
He is small and scared, and reminds Paul of Kemmerich. Paul grabs the recruit's helmet
and covers his rear with it. The men stay down and wait out the shelling. He hears cries
in the distance. Once it quiets down, Paul shakes the recruit and tells him it's safe. The
recruit puts his helmet back on and realizes that he's soiled his underwear. Paul tells
him that is happens to everyone and sends him off to throw his underwear away. Kropp
reports that there are wounded some distance away. The cries, however, are of horses,
not men. Detering, the farmer, loves horses and says that someone should shoot the
horses and put them out of their misery. They listen to the screams for some time,
getting more and more upset. Using binoculars, they see wounded horses running while
soldiers move wounded men on stretchers. Finally, after the wounded men are moved,
the soldiers start shooting the horses. It takes a long time to finish them off.
Paul's group starts heading back to the trucks. Just as they get back to the wooded
area, the shelling begins again and trees explode around them. The men take cover in a
cemetery, where they are trapped. Paul is hit in the head by something, and almost
faints. Directly in front of him, a shell hits and blows a hole in the ground. Paul dives into
the hole for cover, but the hole is part of a grave. He stays close to the dead body in the
ground until Kat grabs him and tells him to put his gas mask on. They are being hit with
mustard gas, which burns the lungs and will kill them very slowly if they breathe it. A few
feet away, a new recruit is on the ground. Paul crawls to him, pulls his gas mask on, and
then jumps back into the shell-hole. Kat, Kropp, and another man take cover there as
well. They can barely see through the goggles of their gas masks. Gas starts collecting
in the hole, but they are trapped by the shelling. A shell hits the ground and sends a
coffin flying on top of them. It hits the fourth man and traps his arm. They free him and
use wood from the coffin to make a splint for his broken arm. The gas masks are
suffocating. The shelling stops, and Paul crawls out of the hole. The gas has cleared
enough for Paul to pull his mask off. All around him, the graveyard is a pile of bodies
that have been blown out of the ground. Paul and Kat stop to help a man whose hip has
been destroyed. As they try to dress his wound, Paul sees that he has no underwear on
and realizes that it is the boy he helped earlier. The boy is badly hurt and begs them not
to leave him. Kat and Paul contemplate shooting him to end his pain, but before they
can, others start to gather. They get a stretcher for the boy, and move on.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 4
After the eight wounded are taken care of and the five dead buried, the men walk
another hour in the rain to get back to the trucks. As they ride back to camp, the rain
pours down on them. The men start to doze. They hear another explosion in the
distance, but when nothing else happens, they fall back asleep.

Chapter 5
Paul and the rest of the men are back at camp killing the lice and other parasites that
cover their bodies. Tjaden has made a stove out of a candle, some wire, and the lid to a
tin of boot-polish, and they throw the bugs on the stove, where they die. The men
compare bugs and laugh, but they are all more interested in the recent arrival of
Corporal Himmelstoss. He has indeed been sent to the front, punishment for
overzealously abusing recruits.
Muller begins asking the others what they would do if it was peace-time again. Kropp
grumpily tells him he would get drunk. Kat tells them they would all go home and shows
them a picture of his wife. Haie says he would find a beautiful girl and spend a week in
bed with her. They all contemplate this for a minute, and then Haie says he'd probably
stay in the army if he was a noncommissioned officer. Paul cannot believe this, but Haie
says the army during peace-time is better than digging peat. Afterwards, he could
become a police officer. Kat tells him that he will never become a non-com, and that
silences him. Muller asks Tjaden what he would do, and Tjaden can only think of
revenge against Himmelstoss. When asked, Detering says that he would simply go on
working on his farm.
Himmelstoss appears, and greets the men awkwardly. They are hostile. Tjaden calls
him a dirty hound, and Himmelstoss orders him to stand up. When Tjaden responds
rudely and passes gas, Himmelstoss threatens him with court-martial and storms off.
Everyone laughs but Kat, who knows Himmelstoss is serious. Tjaden, however, doesn't
care, and leaves to avoid the superiors.
Muller continues asking his question. Instead of answering him, Kropp starts talking
about the subjects they studied in school. It is clear to all that what they learned in
school isn't very useful to them. Kropp says that while Kat, Haie, and Detering have jobs
back home, none of the boys know how to do anything but fight. They never had the
chance to learn anything else. "'The war has ruined us for everything.'" Chapter 5, pg.
87
Topic Tracking: Isolation 2
"We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to
pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from
activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in
the war." Chapter 5, pg. 88
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 5
Himmelstoss returns with a fat sergeant-major, looking for Tjaden. The men pretend
they don't know. The sergeant-major announces that Tjaden is ordered to report to the
Orderly Room in ten minutes. Paul goes and tells Tjaden that they are looking for him,
and he goes to find another place to hide. Himmelstoss returns after a half-hour and
tells them that they should look for Tjaden. Kropp responds by mocking him, and
Himmelstoss storms off again. That night, the trial is held. Lieutenant Bertink calls them
all as witnesses. When Paul and Kropp explain why Tjaden hates Himmelstoss, Bertink
lectures Himmelstoss on the difference between the front and the parade-ground in
training camp. He gives Tjaden three days in the camp's jail and Kropp one, but only
because he is obligated to. The others are free to visit them and play cards, which they
do for most of the night.
After the game, Kat and Paul go hunting for the geese they heard on the way to the
front for wiring detail. They hitch a ride on a supply wagon back to the shed where the
geese are held. It is part of a regimental headquarters. Paul climbs over the wall and
sneaks to the shed. He grabs the two geese, but they put up a mean fight and make a
lot of noise. A guard dog tries to bite his neck, so Paul stays still with his collar
protecting his neck. He is stuck for a long time, until he manages to slowly pull his gun
and fire it at the dog. He jumps up, grabs a goose, and runs. At the wall, he throws the
goose to Kat and climbs out of the way just as the dog jumps at him. Paul and Kat run
back to camp and roast the goose. As it cooks, Paul thinks about how much he and Kat
have in common due to the war, dozes off, and dreams of a place like heaven. When
the goose is finished, the two men eat heartily. They wrap the rest in newspaper and
take it to the jail to give to Kropp and Tjaden. After the two in jail happily eat, Paul and
Kat walk back to their hut to sleep as dawn comes.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 5

Chapter 6
Paul's group is sent to the front early to prepare for a coming offensive. On the way
there, they pass a huge wall of brand-new coffins. The men joke crudely about them,
but they know that the coffins are there for them. At the front, they can hear the sound of
trucks bringing supplies to the enemy. It is obvious that the English are preparing for
something big. Morale is very low. That night, while keeping post in the dug-outs, they
are shelled by their own artillery. This is not the first time that this has happened.
Paul thinks about a time that he left a dug-out and when he returned it was gone. To him
and his comrades, life and death become meaningless on the front. "We lie under the
network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can
duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall." Chapter 6, pg. 101
Rats eat the men's bread so they come up with a plan to kill them. They throw bits of
bad bread in a pile and wait in the dark until the rats come, and then kill them with their
spades. This helps for a short time. They find a few recruits who own saw-edged
bayonets. They take these away and give them regular ones. They say that the enemy
kills and brutalizes soldiers using the more destructive saw-edged bayonets. Paul
comments that sharpened spades are more common in combat, anyway.
Time passes and the men become bleak, until the bombing finally happens. The men
awake and collect themselves. The bombing seems to go on forever, and the men are
stuck in their dug-out. Not even Kat can get them any food. The next morning, they get
a little bread. One new recruit gets stir-crazy and insists on leaving the dug-out. Kat and
Paul hold him down and slap him around to knock some sense into him. Finally, they
have to tie him up and try to play cards to pass the time.
That night, the bombing finally stops, and the men prepare for the attack. They throw
grenades out of the dug-out and then crawl out to meet the French enemy. Paul looks
into the face of one of the enemy soldiers and almost freezes up--at the last minute, he
throws his hand grenade and hits the man's chest. Paul's comrades retreat. There is
destruction everywhere, but the enemy is hurt as well. Around noon, the men get in a
trench and prepare for their counter-attack. They fight their way back to their first trench
and a little beyond. They reach the enemy front line and fight in the trenches, then steal
food and return to their position behind the protection of their artillery. That night, they
eat happily. Afterwards, on watch, Paul thinks of memories that are calm and quiet. He
wonders when he will have such things again, or if the war has ruined him for nice
things forever.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 6
The days drag on, the attacks continue, and the dead increase. One of their men is
trapped somewhere in the distance, hurt and screaming. They cannot find him, but must
listen to his cries. Eventually, his voice dies out. The men kill time collecting the small
parachutes from the shells in between attacks and bombardments. New recruits are
sent up, but they are so inexperienced that they are more harm than good. Many of
them are killed almost immediately--five to ten for every one experienced soldier.
Paul encounters Himmelstoss in the trenches and ends up in the same dug-out as him.
When they charge again, Paul discovers that Himmelstoss has stayed behind, in a
daze. Paul gets angry that Himmelstoss is hiding while young boys are getting killed,
and yells and kicks Himmelstoss to get him to fight. A lieutenant comes along and
orders them to follow him, and Himmelstoss snaps out of his daze. He boldly rushes out
to fight.
"Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, handgrenades--
words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world." Chapter 6, pg.
132
Paul thinks of how tired of battle he is, and it is all he can do to fight and show less
experienced people how to fight. He and his friends teach the new recruits important
details of avoiding being killed, but when the fighting starts again, the recruits mostly do
it wrong. Haie Westhus is dragged away, badly wounded and knowing he is dying. At
the end of the battle, only a few hundred yards have been lost, but the battlefield is
covered with dead bodies.
Paul's group is relieved and they take a truck away from the front. Paul notes how much
the season has changed from when they went to the front. They get off the truck and
Company Commander Bertink shouts for Second Company to gather. He orders them
to count off, but there are only thirty-two of the original 150 that went to the front at the
beginning of the offensive. They march back to their camp.

Chapter 7
Paul's company is taken back to a field depot to be reorganized and brought back up to
strength. While there, the men get some well earned rest and relaxation. While loafing,
Himmelstoss comes to them a changed man. His combat experiences have made him
more friendly. The men welcome him, except for Tjaden. Soon, however, Himmelstoss
is made cook for Second Company, and begins treating Paul and his comrades
especially well, and even Tjaden accepts him. They are rested and well fed, and the
terror of the front begins to sink down inside them. They never forget, however; they
simply enjoy the rest while they have it.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 6
Kropp and Paul discover a poster for a theater company with a picture of a beautiful girl
on it. She is perfect, and they can't take their eyes off her. There is a man next to the girl
in the picture, but they tear him down, because he is clean and they are filthy. After
looking at the beautiful girl some more, they decide to go get deloused and cleaned up.
Leer and Tjaden come along and say vulgar things about the girl in the photo. Paul and
Kropp leave to get cleaned up.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 7
While swimming, Paul, Leer, Kropp, and Tjaden spy three beautiful French women
walking on the bank of the river across from their camp, where they aren't allowed to go.
Paul especially notices one, a beautiful brunette girl. Using a little French, hand
gestures, and a loaf of bread, they make plans with the girls to meet late that night.
They go drinking at the canteen and smoke and tell stories of their sexual experiences.
Since there are only three women, they get Tjaden so drunk that he passes out, and
then get bread, sausage and cigarettes for the girls. They put the presents in their
boots, and then go to the river.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 7
They swim across, holding the boots out of the water. On the other bank, they put their
boots on and run, naked, to the girls' house. Once there, they give the girls their
presents and watch them eat. The girls are very hungry. They chat happily in French,
which Paul and his comrades barely understand. They pair off, and Paul and the
brunette go to a bedroom. He is nervous about the encounter, feeling naked without his
soldier's gear. The girl kisses him, and Paul kisses her back, hoping that by making love
to the girl, he will be able to forget the war, but he can't. On the way back to their camp,
he is miserable, until they see Tjaden running, naked, to the river. They laugh and go to
their quarters to sleep.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 8
Topic Tracking: Isolation 3
Paul is issued leave--seventeen days. Bertink tells him that after traveling, he will report
to a training camp before he returns to the front. His comrades are jealous. Kat advises
him to try and get a safe desk job. They drink at the canteen ands say good-bye to him,
but Paul gloomily wonders who will still be alive when he returns from his training. That
night, they meet the French girls again. Paul tells the brunette that he is going on leave,
but she doesn't seem to care. Paul is confused, but realizes that the girl finds his leave
boring, and would only be interested if he was going to the front. The next morning,
Kropp and Kat walk him to the train station, and then say goodbye. Paul is left
impatiently waiting for his train.
As Paul travels, he watches the countryside go by out the window and becomes
nervous with anticipation as he approaches his hometown. Morning has just started by
the time they pull into his station. He looks around, but doesn't know anyone. He leaves
that station and looks around, memories of his pre-war life coming back to him as he
walks home. Once there, he is greeted by his oldest sister, who hugs him in joy and
calls for his mother. Paul almost faints, but pulls himself together. He looks in on his
mother, who is very sick. He sits by her and thinks of how kind she is for making his
favorite foods, but he is uneasy and cannot feel at home amongst his childhood things.
"There is a distance, a veil between us." Chapter 7, pg. 160
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 9
He gives his mother and sister the food he has brought from the front. His mother
becomes anxious and asks him how it is at the front, because she has heard stories
from other soldiers. Paul cannot answer her questions truthfully, so he tries to ease her
worry. In doing so, he becomes more comfortable being home. After he leaves her side,
he asks his sister about his mother's illness. The doctors are not sure, but they think it is
cancer.
On the street, Paul encounters a Major who yells at him for not saluting properly. When
the major hears that Paul is on leave from the front, he yells at him more and tells him
that his "front-line manners" aren't welcome there. Paul goes home angry and throws
his uniform in the corner. His old suit doesn't fit very well, but it is light after months of
wearing a uniform. His mother is happy he has changed, but his father wants him to put
his uniform back on so he can show off. Paul refuses.
Topic Tracking: Isolation 4
Paul goes to a beer-garden to have a drink. He sits quietly and thinks the townsfolk he
can't bring himself to get along with. That evening, his father asks a lot of stupid
questions about the front. Paul got annoyed with the questions, because his father didn't
understand that talking about the front won't make you understand the front. When his
father asked if he has fought in hand-to-hand combat, Paul left the house. On the street,
he encountered his old German-master, who stopped him and insisted that he join a few
other men and talk about the war. One of the men told him that a foot-soldier couldn't
understand the grand scheme of the war, and could only understand his limited duty.
Paul thought being on leave would be different, but the war has changed him too much
to just return home as if nothing was happening. He is happier alone, away from the
people he no longer understands. He is attracted and repelled by normal civilian life all
at the same time, and ultimately can only think of his comrades back at the front.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 8
Topic Tracking: Isolation 5
Back at home, Paul sits in his room and looks at his books and other possessions. He
misses the joy he got in reading and learning. He hopes that after the war he will be
able to return and love his books again. He thinks of Kemmerich, and contemplates
visiting his mother, but that leads him to thinking about being with his comrades at the
front. He turns his attention back to his room, and tries to find inspiration in his books.
When he pages through them, however, he finds that they no longer inspire him the way
they once did. Dejected, he puts them away and leaves the room.
He goes to visit another old friend, Mittelstaedt, at the local army barracks, and receives
interesting news: their old teacher, Kantorek, has been called up as a territorial--a
lowranking
soldier. Mittelstaedt tells Paul all about ordering Kantorek around, including
yelling at him for the death of their classmate, Joseph Behm. He then shows Paul
Kantorek himself, who is forced to wear old, badly fitting clothing for his uniform. Paul
laughs and thinks about the days when he was scared of Kantorek. Mittelstaedt makes
Kantorek do all kinds of torturous exercise, taunting him with Kantorek's own quotes
from their old classroom.
The days go by and Paul's mother becomes increasingly upset that he will have to leave
again. Paul tries to occupy himself by getting bones from the slaughter-house, but there
are not enough for the entire town, so Paul uses his army rations from the base to give
his family a good meal. With four days left in his leave, he decides to go see
Kemmerich's mother. There, she cries and yells and begs him to tell her of her son's
death. He lies to her and tells her he died quickly, but she doesn't believe him. She asks
him to swear he's telling the truth "by everything sacred," but Paul is hard pressed to
think of anything he finds sacred anymore. He swears anyway, and says he hopes he
will never return from the front if he is lying. She gives him a picture of Kemmerich and
he leaves.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 10
Paul's last night at home, his mother comes to his bed. They sit in silence for some
time, and then Paul tells her to go to sleep. He assures her that he will try to visit while
at training camp. She warns him about French women and tells him to be careful at the
front. He assures her he's going to do everything he can to be safe, and walks her to
her room. As they say goodnight, she gives him some underwear that she couldn't really
afford, and goes to bed. Paul goes back to bed, agonized, wishing he had never come
home on leave.
Topic Tracking: Isolation 6

Chapter 8
Paul returns to the training camp on the moors where he first got his training at the
hands of Himmelstoss. He knows very few people there anymore. Training is boring and
nothing new to Paul. He instead devotes his attention to the beauty of the Nature
around him. Sometimes he gets so wrapped up that he risks missing commands. Next
to the camp is a Russian prison. Often prisoners come across the wire to Paul's camp to
pick through the garbage for what little food they might find. Paul thinks that they don't
look much different than his own German farmers, with honest faces of farmers and
peasants. They are sick and starving, and beg the Germans for food. Sometimes they
trade boots or carvings for food. They are tired and listless, although Paul is told that at
first, they were lively and often fought amongst themselves. Paul watches them and
understands them; they are only his enemy because someone said so. In reality, they
are not that different from him. He thinks that his own officers are more of a true enemy
than the Russians. He gives them each half a cigarette, and then leaves them be.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 9
Topic Tracking: Isolation 7
Towards the end of his training, his father and sister come to visit him. His mother is
now in the hospital, waiting for an operation for her cancer. His father is very worried
that he will not have the money to pay for the operation. Paul envisions him working
late, slaving away in order to pay the expensive bills. He tells his father some army
jokes to cheer him up. He walks them to the train station, and they give him some jam
and potato-cakes that his mother made. He goes back to camp, but cannot eat the food.
He considers giving it all away to the Russians, but thinks of the pain his mother was in
when she made it, and gives the Russians just two cakes.

Chapter 9
At the end of Paul's trip back to the front, he discovers that no one knows where his
regiment is, and he must find it himself. As he searches, he asks about Kat and Albert,
but no one has heard anything. He is forced to camp by himself for a few nights as he
looks for his comrades. He finally finds some good information on them, but is told to
wait until they return from the front in two more days to rejoin them.
Topic Tracking: Isolation 8
When the men return, he finds Kat, Albert, Tjaden, and Muller. He feels uneasy around
them, but doesn't know why. He gives them shares of his mother's potato-cakes and
jam. Kat compliments him on his mother's cakes, and Paul feels close to crying. He is
sad, but he feels that for the first time since before his leave, he is where he belongs.
Rumors go around that they are being transferred to the Russian front. Inspections
increase, and then they find out that the Kaiser is coming to review his troops. Much
fuss goes on for the next week, until the important day that their leader visits them. On
the big day, Paul is disappointed. The Kaiser seems less impressive than his pictures.
They talk afterwards and Kat makes fun of Tjaden for being so impressed by the Kaiser.
Albert and Paul argue about the war and who is right, since both sides believe that they
are right and deserve to win. The comrades discuss war, and why war happens, but in
the end, they find no good answer for the fighting.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 10
On the way back to the front, they see a naked man hanging in a tree. Kat tells Paul it's
because the man has been blown out of his clothes. Paul hasn't seen anything like it.
They report the body to the stretcher-bearers and move on.
The men are sent out on patrol to scout out the enemy position. In front of them are
"black troops," or men dressed in black uniforms that are hard to see. They move out
beyond the trenches. A bomb goes off, and Paul is very frightened. He realizes that his
leave has softened him, and that he is about to fall apart. He hears the voice of his
mother and sees the Russians from the prison camp in his head. He stays on the
ground and cannot convince himself to move. Finally, when he hears Kat's voice, his
strength returns to him, and he can try to rejoin his comrades. On his way back to their
trench, however, he gets lost in a field of shell-holes. A bombardment begins, and Paul
is forced to take cover.
Topic Tracking: Isolation 9
Paul stays in the shell-hole through the entire bombardment and German counterattack.
Suddenly, a man comes flying into the hole on top of him. Before he can think,
Paul stabs the French solider with his knife. He has not killed the man, but wounded him
severely. Paul cannot bring himself to finish the job, however, and is stuck in the hole
waiting for the man to die. Paul tries to help him be comfortable, but there is not a lot he
can do. He dresses the man's wounds and calls him Comrade.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 11
After many more hours, the man dies. Paul, still stuck in the hole, closes the man's eyes
and thinks of the man's wife. After a while he starts talking to the man, trying to explain
why he killed him.
"'But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your handgrenades,
of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our
fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us
that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that
we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony--Forgive me,
comrade; how could you be my enemy?'" Chapter 9, pg. 223
Paul goes through the man's wallet and finds pictures of his wife and daughter. He tries
to read the letters he finds, but he can't read the French. Finally, he looks at the man's
name--although he is scared that it will haunt him--and writes his address down.
Later, Paul calms down a bit. He is exhausted and hungry. The man's name isn't
bothering him. He babbles promises to the body, but he knows he will not do anything
for the dead man. As it gets dark, Paul prepares to leave the shell-hole. As he leaves,
the dead man is forgotten. He sees someone moving on his wire, and he runs to it. He
finds Kat and Albert with a stretcher, looking for him.
They return to the trench, where Paul tells them what happened. He doesn't mention the
man he killed, but the next morning tells Albert and Kat. They comfort him, and
eventually he begins to feel better, saying "War is war."
Topic Tracking: Comrades 12

Chapter 10
The men are assigned guard duty in an abandoned village. They are supposed to guard
a supply dump inside the village. Kat, Albert, Tjaden, Muller, and Detering are all there.
Paul thinks of Haie Westhus, but he is dead. The men settle into a basement of a
bombed-out home and relax. Paul and Kat patrol the empty houses and find two little
pigs. The men decide to make a huge feast with fresh vegetables. They find a fully equipped
kitchen, slaughter the pigs, and get to work cooking. They make a huge meal
of pig, potato-cakes, and vegetables. Two radio-men visit and join in the feast.
Soon, they realize their mistake. The smoke from their cooking has been spotted and
the enemy begins to shell their house. They refuse to leave the food half-cooked. With
shells exploding around them, they finish cooking and haul their food back to their
basement. They all make it safely through heavy shelling. The food stretches out over
several hours, and they find officer's coffee and tobacco in the supply dump. That night,
they find a kitten and feed it, and eat yet again.
The men have stuffed themselves too much, however. The fat on the pig makes them all
very sick, and they have to go to the bathroom frequently. By four in the morning, all
eleven men are squatting outside, relieving themselves. The supply dump is blown open
and other soldiers swarm in and steal food. Paul and the other guards trade the other
soldiers food for things they need, including chocolate to calm their bowels.
Two weeks pass with Paul and his comrades happily wasting their days guarding the
supply dump. They do nothing but relax and treat themselves. Another week, and they
are ordered back to the front. They load some treasures on the truck, put the kitten in a
birdcage, and head back, signing happily.
They are sent out to evacuate a village. They don't expect the French to fire on them
while escorting civilians, but they do. The men scatter. Albert is hit in the knee. Paul
grabs him and they run. They find a dug-out and stop. Paul realized he is wounded as
well, and the two men bandage each other. Albert is having trouble moving his leg. Paul
crawls to an ambulance, and they are taken to a dressing-station. While laying there,
Albert swears he will kill himself rather than be a cripple. The surgeon comes to look at
Paul, who refuses to be chloroformed out of fear that they will amputate his leg. The
surgeon pokes around in his wound, digs out a piece of shell, and tells Paul he is going
home.
Once back with Albert, Paul makes a plan to make sure the two of them stay together.
He gives the medical sergeant-major some cigars and promises him more if Albert and
he stay together. The next morning, they are loaded onto the train. Paul doesn't want to
get in his bed, because he doesn't want to get in a clean bed with lice. The nurse laughs
and tells him to get in.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 13

Later, Paul needs to go to the bathroom, but he cannot bring himself to ask the young
pretty nurse for help. He falls out of bed trying to get up. Finally, Albert tells the nurse
what Paul needs, and she gives Paul a bottle to urinate in. After a few hours, most of
the men have bottles, and modesty isn't a problem anymore.
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 11
Paul hears that Albert will be getting off the train to have his fever treated, so he fakes a
fever as well. They are put in a Catholic hospital, where they get good care but are
awakened by the nuns praying in the morning. Paul shouts for quiet, but one of the nuns
tells him that prayer is more important than sleep. Finally, Paul throws a bottle at the
door of their room, and the nuns, offended, shut their door. At noon, an investigator
comes and yells at them for abusing the nuns. He asks who threw the bottle and
another man, Josef, admits guilt before Paul can speak up. When the investigator
leaves, the man tells everyone that he has a "shooting license," a certificate saying that
he is not responsible for his actions.
That night, one of the men in their room complains that he is bleeding. It takes forever to
get the night nurse to respond. When she does, they see that the man is looking very
sick. Within a few days, he is gone. Josef tells them that they have taken him to the
Dying Room, where terminal patients die. Later, another man, Peter, is rolled out of their
room, but he realizes that they are taking him to die and tries to stop them. The last
Paul sees of him is him yelling, "I will come back again! I will come back again!" Chapter
10, pg. 258
Topic Tracking: Isolation 10
Paul is operated on. It makes him very sick, and he vomits a lot. Two flat-footed men
arrive at the hospital. Josef warns them that the Chief Surgeon likes experimenting on
flat-footed men, trying to correct the problem, and that they should refuse any treatment
that doesn't have anything to do with their injury. The men take his advice, but the
surgeon wears them down and gets them to agree to the procedure. Meanwhile, Kropp
loses his leg. He is threatening suicide. A new blind man tries to kill himself with a fork.
As the days go on, many men die. The mood of the hospital is bleak, until one day,
when Peter is brought back to their room. None of the men expected to see him come
back from the Dying Room, but he is proud and much healthier. Josef is stunned.
As Paul gets better, he can use crutches, but he avoids Albert's gaze. When he moves
around, he leaves the room, so he doesn't have to look at Albert. He wanders the
hallways of the hospital and sees all the injured men dying. He thinks of how his
hospital is just one of thousands in Germany, France, and Russia, and is blown away at
the sheer number of soldiers dying:
"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. I see how peoples are set
against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay
one another." Chapter 10, pg. 263
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 12
Lewandowski is a married man in Paul's room. He is very excited because his wife, who
he hasn't seen in two years, is coming to visit. However, Lewandowski is worried that he
won't be able to get away from the hospital to have sex with his wife. The men
recommend some good spots in the town where they could be alone, but they don't
know a sure way to get him out. When his wife arrives, he introduces her to the other
men in the room. She changed her baby's diaper, and the two sit and talk. One of the
men checks the hallway, and tells him that the coast is clear. Then they set up a
distraction for the sisters and let Lewandowski and his wife have sex in his hospital bed
while they play skat with their backs turned. Albert holds the baby. Once it is over,
Lewandowski and his wife give out sausage slices to the men. They are very happy and
glowing.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 14
Topic Tracking: Innocence Lost 13
After a few more weeks, Albert and Paul finally must separate. Albert goes to an
institute for artificial limbs, and Paul goes home for sick leave, then back to the front.

Chapter 11
The trees are green and spring has come to the front. Death is just another thing to deal
with: "Our thoughts are clay, they are moulded with the changes of the days;--when we
are resting they are good; under fire, they are dead. Fields of craters within and
without." Chapter 11, pg. 271 For the men on the front, nothing exists besides life and
death. All other distinctions are gone. They are soldiers, comrades, and that is all. That
is what holds them together.
Paul thinks of Detering, who spotted a cherry tree in full bloom near their billets and
picked a few blossoms. The men made fun of him. That night, Paul heard him moving
around and spoke to him. Detering told him of his own cherry trees back home. Paul,
suspecting that he would desert, stayed up all night waiting, but Detering didn't do
anything. The next morning, however, he was gone. They later heard that he had been
caught by the military police. They heard nothing else.
The men are now fighting crater to crater. The trenches can no longer hold. They are
surrounded by the English, but then Berger brings up a machine-gun and the counterattack
frees them. They stay in cover, but Berger leaves again to put a dog out of its
misery. Everyone tells him he's mad, but he leaves anyway, and is shot.
Muller is killed. Before he dies he gives Paul Kemmerich's boots. Paul promises them to
Tjaden next. They cannot bury Muller because their line is falling back too quickly.
Healthy, well-fed English and American troops are overrunning them, while they are sick
and starving. Their supplies are almost gone, and their food is terrible. Even so, they
don't think that the end is near. They know only two things, fighting and the hospital,
where doctors send men who shouldn't fight back to the front to fight. Tanks roll over
them, gas burns their lungs. "Trenches, hospitals, the common grave--there are no
other possibilities." Chapter 11, pg. 283
Bertink is killed, hit in the chest while shooting an enemy soldier with no cover. He is hit
in the face by a shell, the same shell that tears Leer's leg open. They both die.
Topic Tracking: Comrades 15
Topic Tracking: Isolation 11
Summer comes and it is obvious to everyone that they are losing the war. Airplanes now
fly over them and kill at will. They are badly outnumbered. The heat and weather
oppress them. On a particularly bad day, Kat is hit in the leg while bringing food. Paul
fixes his leg up, but Kat is bleeding badly. Paul grabs him and drags him through the
field to the nearest dressing-station. Kat is in a lot of pain. The shelling gets worse and
they hide in a hole. Paul, worried, knows that when Kat goes to the hospital, he will
have no more friends. They trade addresses, and then they move on. Finally, after a
great amount of effort, Paul reaches the dressing station with Kat in his arms. He is
exhausted, but overjoyed that Kat is going to be all right. At that moment, however, an
orderly walks up and tells Paul that he has wasted his energy--Kat is dead. A splinter
from a grenade hit him in the back of his head. Paul cannot believe it at first, but Kat no
longer moves or breathes. "Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move
round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is
as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing
more." Chapter 11, pg. 291

Chapter 12
Summer turns into fall. Paul is the last of the boys from his class. Peace, it seems, is
right around the corner. Paul is resting because he was hit with some gas. He thinks of
going home, but he cannot make plans. He has been destroyed. No one will be able to
understand him or any other soldiers, he thinks. He looks around and hopes that joy will
return to him:
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing
more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life
that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have
subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of
the will that is within me." Chapter 12, pg. 295
Topic Tracking: Comrades 16
With that final statement, Paul dies. "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet
and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All
quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though
sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had
an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." Chapter 12, pg. 296
Topic Tracking: Isolation 12

A long long way

Chapter

1. Introduction to Willie and his family. We learn about his mother’s death. Interesting use of
imagery to describe the horrors of childbirth and foreshadows the violence of the war. Willie meets
Gretta

2. Willie looks forward to war. Willie writes his first letter to his father. The Irish troops move
through England noting ho similar it is to Ireland. This perhaps highlights a sense of sadness about
the divisions between England and Ireland.

3. We meet Christy Moran and Captain Paisley for the first time. The men come close to the
enemy whilst re-wiring a fence.

4. Willie writes to Gretta. The first gas attack takes place, everything turns yellow. Barry uses vivid
imagery to help the reader picture the effects of the gas on nature and the men. “The grass died in
the path of the cloud” Another example of Barry’s use of foreshadowing. Captain Pasley dies. Father
Buckley takes centre stage for a while as the men come to terms with their first major loss. We meet
Captain Sherridan.

5. Willie and O’Hara visit the prostitutes. This is the first time Barry asks the reader to think about
the morality of the war. Willie writes another letter to Gretta

6. Willie takes leave and returns to Dublin for a few days. We see the touching side of the
relationship between Willie and his father. Willies insecurities about his height are reinforced
through Barry’s use of metaphor. Willie and Gretta have an intimate moment before he leaves.

7. The Easter Rising takes place. Barry highlights the confusion surrounding this event, a confusion
that many Irish people felt at the prospect of inter-Irish fighting and killing. Willie sees a young rebel
of his own age die. This has a profound effect on him and leads him to sympathise with the rebels.
Willie meets Jessie Kirwan whose death will later cause him to question the logic of the army.

Part 2

8. Willie arrives back in Flanders. He writes to his father about the Rising. The second gas attack
takes place. Quigley suffers but survives. A German soldier attacks Willies trench and Willie kills him.
This is the first time he has killed anyone. Barry uses imagery to create a negative impression of the
German soldier. We can liken his language to the used in anti-German propaganda.

9. Willie takes a message to the company head-quarters. Barry highlights the racist attitudes of
the English to the Irish throughout this interaction. Willie prays for the German soldier he killed.
10. The regiment have a bath. Barry again is at his descriptive best here, likening the men to the
pigeons walking across the fragile glass ceiling. Barry also incorporates an element of humour here.
Willie and the men have a sing-a-long. Willie sings Ave Maria (A religious song). He sang this song to
his dead mother and it is something of a motif in the novel. Barry shows his craft off excellently here
in the power of this passage.

11. Willie writes to his father again. We learn of the execution of the rebels in Dublin. Willie again
shows his confusion about the Easter Rising. He also wrotes to Gretta again. Willie has a dream about
the German soldier he killed.

12. The chapter opens with a beautiful description of the surrounding countryside. This contrasts
greatly with the brutal description of the slaughter house where Jessie Kirwan is imprisoned awaiting
a court-marshal. Willie is asked by Father Buckley to reason with him but there is nothing he can do.
Barry again is questioning the morality of war-fare and army regulations.

Quote:

13. Jessie Kirwan is executed. The weather deteriorates (an example of pathetic fallacy)Pete O’Hara
tells his shocking story to Willie. Willie reacts badly and punches him. This will influence O’Hara’s
actions later in the novel.

14. Barry creates his most shocking depiction of war yet.

Part 3

15. Willie receives a letter from Maud about his father’s annoyance with him. This marks an
interesting turn in the central father-son relationship. We also learn of the various recreational
activities that the soldiers engage in. This chapter of light-relief parallels with the light relief offered
to the soldiers after their shocking experiences of the previous chapter.

16. Chapter 16 marks the beginning of spring. It is interesting how Barry chooses the re-birth of lice
to indicate springtime as opposed to the blossoming of flowers! We are introduced to Biggs, the new
leader of the platoon Willie confesses his sins to Father Buckley

17. The men return to the trenches. Christy Moran reveals why he joined the army. We learn of
Biggs’ death

18. We learn of Willie Redmond’s death. The men are stuck in the trenches again through the
“August rains” Father Buckley is killed. Christy Moran gives Willie leave. Note the exchange between
the 2 men at the end of the chapter. What does it show about their relationship?

19. Willie goes home on leave. Dolly doesn’t recognise him, this compares to his last visit when she
recognised him straight away. His father has a go at him about his letter. He goes to see Gretta, she is
married with a baby, but it isn’t his child. Willie has an angry encounter with his father. This
foreshadows the ending of the novel, as things are unravelling and gives a clue that the ending may
not be happy.
20. Willie is still in Dublin, he goes to see Captain Pasley’s mother and father. Possibly he went to see
Pasley’s parents because he was his first Captain, could this be because of a promise? On the way
some children spit at him and tell him to go home, thinking that he was an English soldier. When he
goes to leave, his sisters go to say good-bye to him, but they don’t want to give him a hug, apart from
Dolly who runs up to him. This shows a gap, and makes you wonder what the father has been saying.

21. It’s Christmas and Willie doesn’t get a present from home, this again shows the distance
between him and his family, and he receives no birthday present either. He is thinking about who
could have sent that letter to Gretta. The tone is morose, which is typical of Barry’s technique. At the
end of the chapter, Willie’s platoon is attacked again and he looses consciousness.

22. The chapter starts with Willie in hospital. He befriends a nurse who makes him reminisce about
Gretta. Willie learns that his division has mostly been killed. They have been accused of being
cowardly. We learn about further issues in Ireland. Willie writes what will be his final letter to his
father.

23. Willie returns to his regiment. We find out that Tommy Weekes has been killed. Willie is given
one of his books to keep. Major Stokes commits suicide. The Germans sing Silent Night and Willie
joins in. He is shot unexpectedly and dies in the trench. Willie’s father writes to him but it arrives
after his death and is returned to him. Willie is buried in the trench where he fell.

Novels
• Why is it still necessary to concentrate on what literature 100 years after the war?

• Ww1 can be described as one of mankind’s greatest tragedies

• It serves as a painful but necessary reminder of the effects of war
• It wiped out a generation of young men
• Ww1 produced many technological and military advancements
• Saw an important change in literature and the view on war

• It serves as a painful but necessary reminder of the effects of war (all quiet on the Western
front)
• It wiped out a generation of young men ( a long, long way)
• All Quiet on the Western Front writing style is chaotic because it shows how chaotic the
war it
Protagonist
• All quiet on the western front – Paul ( Germany)
• A Long, Long Way- Wilie (British)
• Wielie (17 years old)
• Paul (18 years old)
• Both are teenagers

VIVID DESCRIPTION OF HORROR AND CONFUSION OF WAR

• HOW THE STORY IS TOLD

THE CHARACTER BEHAVES IN THE FACE OF A WAR SITUATION

• LOOK AT WHERE THEY FIRST KILL A MAN

EFFECTS OF COMBAT ON THE COMMON SOLDIER

• HOW OTHERS REACED TO THE WAR

IDEA OF YOUTH BEING ROBBED AT THE HANDS OF WAR

• Paul: THEIR TEACHER (PE)

:
• WILLIE: WHEN HE IS LOOKING FOR A QUIET PLACE TO MASTURBATE
: HE TAKES HIS YOUTH WITH HIM TO WAR
• YOUTH IS THEIR JUSTIFICATION TO GO TO WAR
• HE WANTS TO SHOW HIS FATHER AND HIS GIRLFRIEND THAT HÊ IS BRAVE BECAUSE HE IS
TOO SHORT TO BECOME A POLICE OFFICER.

THE CHARACTERS, SPECIFICALLY PAUL AND WILLIE LEARN ABOUT THEMSELVES AND HUMAN NATURE

• HOW THEIR THOUGHTS CHANGE WITH GOING IN AND GOING OUT OF WAR

WHY THIS TITLE

All quiet on the western front A LONG, LONG WAY

• PAULS DEATH ( EVERYTHING DIES WITH • WILIES LIFE (FORM BITH TO DEATH)
HIM) • IRISH SONG
• THE WAR IS OVER • PROTAGONICE JOURNEY
• NO MANLAND IS QUIET
• SUMMARISED PAULS DEATH
• PAUL TELLING THE STORY SO THE
WHOLE STORY ENDS
• ALSO, WHERE PAUL DIES