All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul is suggesting that the experiences of war have helped to make children represent some of the worst aspects of adults. The bitterness and resentment that have come to replace what was once...

One of the abiding themes of All Quiet on the Western Front is that war corrupts. It can make people do all kinds of terrible things that they'd otherwise never do. More to the point, war can...

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul refers to his generation as a "waste land" because they have been robbed of their youth by the war. When Paul meets men of the older generation at the bar...

The original question had to be edited down. Paul's realization about the progression of the war is not a very hopeful one in chapter 11. He is beginning to see that the war is withering away...

Paul's characterization of the men in his platoon highlights his deep and abiding interest in their humanity. To Paul, his peers aren't just soldiers. Each of them has goals, desires, and dreams...

The "abyss" to which Paul fears his thoughts will lead is the conclusion that the war which has destroyed his life and the lives of all his friends is based on a fallacy, in which case the...

This passage is taken from the latter part of Chapter 9 of Remarque's stirring novel. Paul Baumer has been returned to the front and searches for his comrades, but is forced to jump into a shell...

I think that the nature of the question has to be analyzed. From the question, the implication is that Paul's "downfall" was the result of, or at least impacted by, those around him. It is as if...

First and foremost, All Quiet on the Western Front is realistic because it refuses to glorify war. It makes no attempt to justify Germany’s part in World War I, or anyone else’s, for that matter....

All Quiet on the Western Front was written by Erich Maria Remarque, whom we may say is on authority on the Great War, the so-called "war to end all wars," for the simple reason that he experienced...

Dislocation is likely a symptom of his mindset; Paul has had to become a creature of pragmatism, locking his emotional reactions into one purpose to ensure his survival. In civilian life, one need...

The soldiers are obviously under a great deal of strain when they are on the line. The following quote expresses the idea that in battle they are animals, but away from it they change entirely in...

In many ways, All Quiet on the Western Front is a story of disillusionment, both for Paul Bäumer and the reader. It's been suggested by some that the reason why there tends to be a break between...

This is an opinion question, so it is difficult to reply to your question in full. The first part of your question is the most easily addressed in the ENotes format. The German-language novel “All...

After returning from a leave during which he went home and felt his alienation from his old life, Paul Baumer is sent to a training camp. There he has learned to detach himself, "It is bearable if...

Remarque is able to use the contrasts between what could be or what was hoped to be and the grim reality of what is to illuminate the condition of war that young soldiers in World War I had to...

In World War II (perhaps the Korean war, as well as others), pin-up girls were very popular. Women such as Betty Grable, in a one-piece swim suit, with long legs and beautiful face and figure, were...

Two aspects of "Kat" Katczinsky's personality are revealed in chapter three of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. First of all, he is resourceful. If anyone needs or wants...

Having both experienced the horrors of World War I, part of "a lost generation" who cannot "go home again" to what they were before the War, Paul Baumer and Harold Krebs are tragically displaced....

If Paul is going to die, you could change the way he dies. Does he die a senseless death, or does he go out in a blaze of glory? I have always been saddened when soldiers come home and die in car...

At the end of Chapter 11, Paul says to Detering: '" Don't do anything, silly Detering.'" Detering has seen a cherry tree and has gone out to pick a branch full of cherry blossoms. Paul knows...

The men's dreams of going home seem to vary based on their age and experience. For example, Detering who is one of the older men in the group has left behind his wife and his farm which he talks...

In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel of soldiers in the First World War, All Quiet on the Western Front, the importance of food cannot be overstated. In describing the preoccupation of soldiers living...

In order to try to make up to Paul and his friends, Himmelstoss grants them special privileges when he takes the place of the sergeant-cook, who has gone away on leave. Himmelstoss treats the men...

Several authors (Hemingway, Sassoon, Owen) of Remarque's era reflect the mantra of "The Lost Generation." The carnage of the first world war was staggering. Germany lost over 7 million people....

Mueller poses this question during a downtime in chapter 5. Kropp immediately answers with, "Get out of this," and then get drunk. Then Kat reminds him of his wife and children back home. Haie...

One point of convergence between both works is their fundamental challenge of the Romantic conception of war. When Krebs returns to his Oklahoma town, he is forced to have to address their desire...

While Paul is the protagonist of All Quiet on the Western Front, it is hard to identify him as a hero. Because Remarque set out to write a story highlighting the commonality among the soldiers of...

Although the Kaiser's visit to the front is meant to inspire the men, to get them pumped up for the war, it really has the opposite effect on Paul and his comrades. It makes them question the war...

One of the reasons why Remarque's work is so powerful is that it details the dehumanizing experience of war. Prior to World War I, so many viewed war as an honorable experience. Cloaked in the...

In an early chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front, the men have returned from the front and are eating together. They reflect on the nature of war and their training (or lack thereof). They...

The original question had to be edited down. I would suggest that Paul's statement reflects the condition of being that he has come to accept as part of his being in war. There is a note of...

Having been in combat in the trenches, and having experienced the deprivations and horrors of warfare, Paul and his company are sent to a field depot where they can be re-organized and given...

After an assignment to guard a village in which Paul and his fellow soldiers find food and a few other comforts, they are ordered a fortnight later to evacuate a village. However, as they begin to...

This incredibly moving book is a profound and powerful meditation on World War I and in particular on the lives of so many that were lost, both through death and through the events that these...

Most often in All Quiet on the Western Front, dreams come in the form of daydreams or flashbacks. Often, when Paul is "resting" on the front lines (on watch late at night, riding in a lorry, or...

The death of Kemmerich early in the book is probably the loss that affects Paul the most. Kemmerich was wounded in the leg, which was later amputated. He hangs on for a while in the hospital, but...

Since my father was a solider in a difficult war, I related the scenes where the fog of war is described, and the difficulty of going home. When you go to war, you have to use coping mechanisms to...

The narrator of the Erich Maria Remarque World War I novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, is German infantryman Paul Baumer, who tells his tales of battlefield horror mixed with peaceful respites...

Paul believes that the adults have let the young men down because the adults have persuaded them to join the war to fight for their country when the war is really about horrible death, not...

A detailed critical commentary of these passages might take into account how they relate to the major themes of the novel, two of which are strongly presented in the text excerpts. War and Heroism...

While it is often a challenge to compare/contrast a lengthy work with a short story, there are certain areas of theme and characterization that can bear comparative analysis. One such theme is so...

In Chapter 6, the German forces are suffering heavy losses and many men around Paul lose their lives in battle. The soldiers dive into the trenches to retrieve bands from fired shells and slips of...

There are plenty of passages to choose from to demonstrate that All Quiet On The Western Front is critical of the romantic notion of war and patriotism. From Chapter 9, for example: But now, for...

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque addresses the futility of war through descriptive imagery and tone. Throughout the novel, the narrator Paul vividly describes the things that he sees...

Chapter 1 opens with the narrator Paul Baumer describing what his life has been like since his arrival at the front lines fourteen days ago. His tone might best be described as matter-of-fact, and...

When soldiers are together for any length of time, there is a strong comaraderie that develops--one involving deep empathy. In Chapter Nine, Paul remarks that with his fellow soldiers he is ...no...

By the summer of 1918, the few soldiers who have survived to this point are at the end of their endurance. Paul says, "the summer of 1918 is the most bloody and the most terrible...every man here...

Paul shows great empathy toward the plight of the Russian prisoners. The sight of these pathetic, hungry, disease-ridden men once more brings into sharp relief the utter futility of war and how it...

At the training camp, Paul seems to derive a measure of pleasure from the beauty of nature. Unlike the first time he was stationed there, Paul has no friends among the soldiers. This leaves him...