I pledge allegiance To the flag Of the United States of America And to the republic For which it stands One nation Under God Indivisible With liberty and justice for all. How far will your allegiance take you?

All Quiet on the Western Front “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it all to pieces.”

 More than any other conflict, the Great War inspired writers of all generations and classes, most notably among combatants  AQWF is an anti-war novel depicting the horrors of war from the point of view of the ordinary soldier: "It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dug-out I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hour's bombardment unscratched. No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck." Remarque During the War

 Born in 1898  Erich served as a German soldier at 18 in WWI  He was sent to the Western Front.  In July 1917, he was wounded while retrieving an injured soldier during an attack. Suffered shrapnel wounds in his leg, right arm, and neck.

 Erich remained unsettled by his experiences from the war.  The young people who returned from war, including Erich, had a pessimistic and uncertain outlook on life and society after the war.

 Although he returned home alive, Remarque remained unsettled by his wartime experiences.  The below passage contains Remarque’s opening remarks that preface the novel’s beginning: “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.”

 An international best-seller published in  The book is revered for its “eyewitness authenticity.”  Although fictional, the book is based on Remarque’s experiences as a soldier.

 Novel written from the perspective of a German soldier  Anti-War novel; does NOT glorify war  Remarque shows the dark side of war  Shows the “human cost” of war

 Loss of Innocence  Patriotism  Disillusionment  Human cost of war  Atrocities of War

 WWI was fought with 18 th and 19 th century tactics, but with 20 th century weaponry  Grenades: use was perfected throughout the war; a projectile explosive  Machine Guns: took 4-6 men to work; had the firing power of 100 guns; shot 500 rounds a minute  Poison Gas: causes burning sensation in throat/chest; painful death by suffocation; depending upon the gas used, death was either quick an painful, or slow and torturous  Rifles: Main weapon of British in the trenches; 15 rounds could be fired in a minute; a person 1,400 meters away could be killed

 WWI was fought with 18 th and 19 th century tactics, but with 20 th century weaponry  Planes: could deliver bombs; used for spying work; was armed with machine guns, sometimes cannons  Torpedoes: used by submarines to blow up ships

 The “front” consisted of opposing trenches, sometimes only yards apart. The trench warfare of World War I lasted for three years and took several million lives.

The trenches were muddy and often flooded with water. The bodies of dead and wounded men and animals fouled them. Soldiers fought and lived among the dead Corpses were piled in the “no man's land” between the trenches. Enemy snipers, rats, lice, and stench from the decaying bodies contributed to the misery of the trenches.

Because of the sights/sounds/smell (conditions), soldiers often spent no more than a week at a time in the trenches. Time in the trenches was not always spent in battle; much time was uneventful, but danger always lurked.

 Number of fatalities and wounded was astronomical  Over 37 million casualties ▪ Nearly 17 million deaths ▪ Roughly 10 million military ▪ 7 million civilians ▪ Over 20 million wounded  Those who returned were called the “lost generation,” many of whom developed a pessimistic and uncertain outlook on life and society after the war.

 Traditional values that led to the war (honor/duty/glory/discipline) seemed hollow to these men  Many survivors blamed the older generation for permitting the war’s ghastly and wasteful destruction

 Term coined to describe the reaction some soldiers experienced due to the trauma of WWI  Reaction to the intensity of the fighting, and atrocities witnessed/experience, that produced helplessness/panic/flight/inability to sleep/walk/talk  At the time, was a poorly understood and treated condition.

 Some men who suffered this condition were put on trial for cowardice, and even executed for military crimes

 Book begins in 1917 after a battle, in which members of the protagonist’s, Paul Baumer, company have been killed.  Paul narrates the tale, and the novel is told with many flashbacks.  Paul and his classmates were encouraged to enlist in the German army by their teacher.  Paul’s company includes school fellows.  Throughout the novel, Paul tries to make sense of what he sees and experiences in the war.  He realizes that, back home, “no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for.”

 Readers follow Paul with his Second Company to the front line where he experiences a bombardment of French bombs, trench warfare, and death on an intimate level.  Juxtaposed with the harsh experiences of war, readers also learn of the intimate camaraderie that develops between the group as they work together to survive.

 All Quiet has three streams of text which are braided together.  There is a linear narrative of Paul’s current experience,  His reflections and meditations  And his memories of past events.  There is no clear timeline. The reader relies on the changing seasons and the narrator’s age as reference points for the passage of time.  Although, there are no dates, the narrative is chronological – readers think - and takes place over the course of four years.  It is also comparable to a diary since readers are privy to Paul’s inner thoughts as well as the events he experiences.