Chapter One  Point of View – First Person  Theme – Questioning Authority – Kantorek/Elders  Paradox – an apparent contradiction that is actually true  Windfall – why extra rations?  Ginger  Latrine situation – Why?  Kantorek – Little Man Syndrome  Josef Behm – Irony  Kemmerich – Boots  Iron Youth – youth was long ago; they are now old men

Chapter One, cont.  Characters: –Paul Baumer – protagonist –Albert Kropp – thinker –Muller – school books –Leer – ladies’ man –Tjaden – skinny; locksmith –Haie Westhus – big man; peat digger –Detering – peasant farmer –Stanislaus Katczinsky – leader; resourceful

Chapter Two  Theme – Questioning Authority –Older generation vs. younger men –A wasteland – no anchor in the past, no prospect for the future  Muller – not selfish, practical  What they learned in camp  Himmelstoss – Also little-man syndrome  Kemmerich’s death – orderlies uncaring; they need the bed

Chapter Two, cont.  Tasks for training –Remade bed –Kneaded boots –Scrubbed with toothbrush –Snow clean-up with hand broom –“Prepare to advance, advance, lie down” –Attention in the cold –Running stairs at 3 a.m. in skivvies  Brutal training – Good or Bad?

Chapter Two, cont.  “We became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough – and that was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked. Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad.”  Esprit de corps – finest thing that arose out of the war - comradeship

Chapter Three  Juxtaposing scenes – depressing discussion of war and account of Himmelstoss’s comeuppance  Kat’s sixth sense  Casual wager on outcome of battle – men are desensitized  Kropp’s idea for war  Tjaden’s hatred for Himmelstoss  Revenge is like black pudding – delicacy; this is a metaphor  Himmelstoss’s beat-down

Chapter Four  Irony – graveyard scene: not even the dead can rest; take cover to save life under coffins  Apostrophe – speaker directly addresses something nonhuman  What does the earth mean to a soldier?

Chapter Four, cont.  Feelings on the way to the front  Heightening of senses  Fair-headed recruit – first incident  Wounded horses – symbolic  First incident of gas  Fair-headed recruit – second incident  Chapter comes full-circle

Chapter Five  Theme – Comeradeship: goose dinner  Killing lice  Peacetime plans –Kropp would get drunk –Kat – take care of family –Haie – women – then stay in army – Why? –Tjaden – stop Himmelstoss –Detering – straight on with harvest

Chapter Five, cont.  Himmestoss appears  Tjaden ignores his commands  Threatened with court-martial  Out of 20 men in their class, 7 dead, 4 wounded, 1 in mad house, 3 promoted, plus them  Useless things they learned in school  3 important lessons they learned in the field –Light a cigarette in the rain –Start a fire with wet wood –Bayonet usage

Chapter Five, cont.  Trial – Bertink in charge –Men explain what they went through –Bertink lectures Himmelstoss that the front is not a parade ground –Tjaden gets a long sermon and 3 days’ open arrest –Kropp gets 1 day’s open arrest  Kat and Paul and the goose dinner –Supreme friendship

Chapter Six  Vivid imagery – butterflies playing on skull  Forlorn like children and experienced like old men  Theme – Horrors of War  New Coffins – For Whom?  How is the Germany Army doing?  Chance  Corpse Rats  Claustrophobia – new recruit  The attack  Memories of home

Chapter Six, cont.  Missing men – stuck in No Man’s Land  New Recruits – trouble Why?  Teaching the New Recruits  Himmelstoss in combat  How long has it been? How many have survived?

Chapter Seven  Situational irony – Paul’s visit home. Not happy as we would expect  Why are the men okay with Himmelstoss now?  Terror  Propaganda  The French Women

Chapter Seven, cont.  17 days leave for Paul – then training; why is he not happy?  Mother – what is wrong?  Paul lies about situation at front – why?  What incident causes Paul to change out of his uniform?  Father  Teacher/Other elders at bar  Mittelstaedt and Kantorek  Leave is a pause  Kemmerich’s mother  Paul’s own mother

Chapter Eight  Universal brotherhood – similarities between Paul and Russians  Training camp on the Moors  Russian prisoners  Father and sister visit  Potato cakes

Chapter Nine  Remarque is criticizing nationalism, which puts national loyalty above any other; major cause of WWI  Paradox – It (gunfire) reveals too little and too much.  Inspection  Fatherland – Country offending a country  Back up to the front line

Chapter Nine, cont.  Death of Gerard Duval  Kat and Albert bring him in  Sniper at the end

Chapter Ten  Humor – Josef Hamacher, supply dump dinner  Guard duty – village supply dump  Comic aspects of their dinner  Paul, Albert wounded in evacuation  Dressing station; train; hospital  Incidents on train

Chapter Ten, cont.  Josef Hammacher – shooting lisence  Franz Wachter – dead room  Peter – bandaging ward  Operations, surgeons  Albert  More of the Horrors of War  Lewandowski  Paul’s second leave

Chapter Eleven, Twelve  Symbolism – the boots  Relationship between Kat and Paul – they are related: both are sacrificial victims to the war. This is irony.  Climax – death of Kat  Conclusion is heavy irony – Paul dies one month before the end on a day that is “All Quiet”

Chapters Eleven, Twelve cont.  Spring of 1918  Detering  Berger and the messenger dog  Muller is dead – boots go to Paul – he has willed them to Tjaden  German army doing poorly – supplies, young recruits, wounded men sent back to fight

Chapters Eleven, Twelve cont.  Tanks as weapons  Leer dies  Poetry and repetition to describe war  Kat’s wound and death  Fall of 1918  14 days rest due to gas  Separate ending to novel – not a chapter

Symbolism  Boots – Shared experience of soldiers; foreshadow death  Cherry tree – beauty of natural world  Goose dinner – comradeship  Wounded horses – outraged nature

Final Discussion  How did the point of view change? Why?  In what ways are the issues in this book specific to WWI? War in general?  Title of Novel  What makes this novel a “classic”?