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All Quiet on the Western Front: Summary
During WWI, a twenty-year-old named Paul Bäumer is inspired by the patriotic speeches of his teacher to volunteer for the German army. Along with a group of schoolmates, Paul endures a brutal training regime at the hands of a sadistic drill sergeant.
The Western Front was a 400-mile stretch of land weaving through northern France and Belgium. Many of WWI's most important and bloody battles took place on the Western Front.
The company is sent to the frontlines in France, where Paul befriends an older soldier named Kat, who becomes the young man's mentor. After only two weeks of fighting, half of Paul's company has been killed or injured. As one of Paul's schoolmates is dying, another friend, Müller, asks if he can have the man's boots after he dies. While the rest of the group considers this question callous, Paul reasons that there is no room for everyday manners and emotions of civilian life during war.
Fig. 1 - The misery of life in the trenches soon destroys Paul's romantic notions of war.
A new set of recruits join the company to act as reinforcements, and the men discuss the futility of war. They believe conflicts give petty men a sense of importance and that the politicians who instigate wars should be forced to fight them in place of armies.
How does Paul describe his periods of leave from the frontline? What is Remarque trying to say about the impact of war?
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque questions many common myths surrounding nationalism and war. WWI had a formative effect on people's views of war. Many people viewed the war as necessary and noble at its outbreak. Tensions between various European nations had been rising for several decades, with the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) wanting to explain their empires. This expansion was opposed by the Allied nations (England, France, Russia), who viewed it as a threat to their interests.
Most leaders and citizens entered WWI with a romantic view of war and warfare. They were inspired by nationalistic ideas of duty and the nobility of conflict. However, WWI proved to be a turning point in attitudes toward war. Due to technological processes, armies were better equipped and more adept at killing each other on a large scale. Heavy artillery, aircraft, and chemical weapons like mustard gas meant that WWI became the bloodiest and most brutal conflict humans had ever witnessed.
Fig. 2 - All countries used propaganda to appeal to people's sense of patriotism and duty.
Both sides in the conflict endured and sustained heavy losses as large sections of France and Belgium became a battlefield. Though neither side gained much territory or strategic advantage from constant fighting, the war continued, with everyday soldiers paying the cost. Military commanders of the Central Powers and the Allied forces were out of touch with the reality of life in the trenches and the low morale of their troops. They continued to issue highly unpopular and costly orders, further increasing the misery of life in the trenches.
With the development of mass media, civilians at home learned about some of the realities of war. While many continued to see the war as just, there was a shift in attitudes at home and on the front.
After an enemy attack, Paul sees giant rats feast on the corpses of his dead comrades. In the face of this horror, Paul reasons that men must become animals in war to survive.
The men are given a brief respite from the frontline. During their break, they encounter a group of French women, but Paul cannot interact with them. He laments the loss of the youthful innocence he had before the war.
During leave, Paul returns home but feels like no one can understand the horrors he's visited on the frontline. He discovers his mother is dying of cancer and hears that the teacher who had inspired him to join the army has been conscripted. While at home, Paul sees a prisoner-of-war camp containing Russian soldiers and realizes that they are not his enemy but just ordinary people with whom he has no reason to fight.
Paul believes that in war, men must become animals to survive. How does Remarque use imagery of animals to display this belief?
Back on the frontline, the German Kaiser pays a visit to the troops. Paul and his comrades are disappointed that the Kaiser is not the dashing, noble figure they'd learned of in school. Instead, he is an uninspiring small man with a weak voice.
During a battle, Paul becomes separated from his company and hides in a hole. When a French soldier jumps into his hiding place, Paul instinctively stabs him. Distraught by his actions, Paul tends to the French soldier's wound as the man slowly dies over several hours. After the soldier succumbs to his injuries, Paul discovers a picture of the man's family, and the reality of his actions dawns on him; like Paul, his "enemy" was an ordinary man forced to fight in the war.
Fig. 3 - German soldiers are less than inspired by the Kaiser's visit to the frontlines.
As the enemy forces weaken the German army, Paul loses each of his close friends in successive attacks. After one of his friends is shot while trying to escape, Paul desperately tries to cling to the last shreds of his humanity. During an attack on enemy lines, Kat suffers a shot to the leg. Paul carries him for miles back to the trenches for treatment. Upon arrival, he realizes that the back of Kat's head has been blown off by shrapnel. Now the sole survivor of his friend group, Paul relinquishes any remaining hope.
What are Paul's attitudes toward the future?
Rumors circulate through the German frontline that the command is on the verge of surrender, and Paul wonders what good he will be during peacetime. In October 1918, shortly before the war's end, Paul is killed on a quiet, peaceful day. As his body is lifted out of the trenches, the other soldiers notice a serene smile on Paul's face.
The army's situation report for the day states, "All Quiet on the Western Front."
All Quiet on the Western Front: Characters
Paul enlists in the army with his classmates Kropp, Leer, Kemmerich, and Mueller. On the front, the boys serve alongside a host of other characters. The novel's most important characters are Paul and his mentor Kat.
Paul Bäumer
Paul serves as the narrator and protagonist of the novel. Through his eyes, we see the soldier's journey from a naive schoolboy to an emotionally scarred veteran. Before the war, Paul displayed an artistic and sensitive side that included a love for poetry. As he learns the grim reality of war, Paul cuts off the most human parts of himself to survive in the chaos of the trenches. Each of Paul's close friends is killed in the war. As each of them dies, he loses any sense of hope for the future.
Fig. 4 - Erich Maria Remarque fought on the frontlines during WWI.
Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat)
At 40, Kat is the eldest member of Paul's company and becomes a father figure to the men. The younger men admire him for his problem-solving abilities and leadership skills. Like many of the soldiers Paul encounters, life on the frontline has made Kat cynical about the war. He often complains about incompetent commanders and pointless missions. Still, Kat remains dedicated to his sense of duty and service. Kat is the last of Paul's close friends to die, and his death significantly impacts the young soldier.
All Quiet on the Western Front: Themes
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque uses Paul's point of view to highlight the unglamorous reality of war and the lasting impact of conflict on soldiers.
The Reality of War
Paul and his friends are inspired to volunteer for the German army by their teacher, Kantorek, who wins them over with romantic notions of patriotism and the adventurous life of a soldier. The boys believe they must serve their country and enter their training with high hopes. On the frontlines, they experience the horrors of war up close. Battles are bloody and costly as the boys watch their comrades die for little strategic gain. The trenches they inhabit are filled with rats who feast on the corpses of dead soldiers, and the army's commanders are often callous about the brutal losses endured by the men and seem unable to lead.
Fig. 5 - The grim reality of life and death on the battlefield exposed the shallowness of patriotic ideals.
The ideas of patriotism and just wars are often built on the belief that an individual must sacrifice for their country. A soldier is expected to kill and die to protect their people and land from a dangerous outside force. In reality, Paul sees the enemy soldiers as his brothers rather than his enemy. After he kills a French soldier, he is racked with guilt and shame.
The Soldier's Struggle
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque highlights war's psychological and physical impact on soldiers. When Paul receives leave to visit home, he feels disconnected and isolated from other people. The citizens of his hometown are optimistic about the war and have not had their romantic illusions of conflict destroyed by actually experiencing battle.
Paul presents the day-to-day life in the trenches as a state of constant panic and dread for the soldiers. Since death can come at any moment, the soldiers are in permanent fear. The soldiers become hard-hearted to cope with this trauma and quickly lose any sense of sentimentality. As the novel progresses, Paul loses every one of his close friends and must force himself to become desensitized to death.
All Quiet on the Western Front: Analysis
Erich Maria Remarque served in the German army during WWI and personally experienced many of the horrors of trench life and battle. Although the novel draws heavily on his experience, it is a work of fiction rather than an autobiography.
Style
Most of All Quiet on the Western Front is written in first-person narration but briefly switches to a third-person perspective following Paul's death. Using Paul's eyewitness view, Remarque capably illustrates the horrors of life during the war. This viewpoint highlights many soldiers' journeys from wide-eyed idealists to shell-shocked war veterans. Paul tells his story in the present tense, unfolding the events as they happen rather than in retrospect. He employs straightforward, punchy language that captures a soldier's direct attitude and the everyday reality of life in the trenches.
Remarque claimed that the novel was an apolitical work. However, it was quickly embraced by pacifists and anti-war activists. One of Marque's recurring ideas in the book is the futility of war and the view that while rich, old men often instigate wars, poor, young men do the actual fighting. When Paul kills the French soldier who stumbles into his hiding place, he feels immense guilt at the act rather than pride. The man he killed was not his enemy; like Paul, he was merely trying to fulfill his patriotic duty. Later, Paul sees a prisoner-of-war camp full of Russians and feels a sense of kinship with them.
Fig. 6 - The novel's antiwar message resonated with generations of readers.
At the novel's end, Paul's dead body is lifted out of the trenches. He has a permanent smile, which suggests that he welcomed death and was glad to be finally leaving the war. This highlights one of the more subtle dangers of war. Initially, Paul had been carefree and enthused about living his life. The war has altered his body, mind, and even his soul.
The novel's title is also ironic. Paul's death is in itself a tragic event. However, in the greater scheme of the war, his death does not merit a mention in the army's daily report. Since death was a daily occurrence in the war, the soldiers' lives ceased to have any value or importance.
All Quiet on the Western Front: Quotes
Here is a look at some essential quotes from Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.
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 war." - (Ch. 5)
Remarque warns that as well as the physical and psychological damage war inflicts, there is also a dehumanizing effect. Paul starts as a young idealist with an open mind and loves for the world. To survive the horror of war, he must kill those parts of himself.
It is strange to see these enemies of ours so close up. They have faces that make one think – honest peasant faces, broad foreheads, broad noses, broad mouths, broad hands, and thick hair. They ought to be put to threshing, reaping, and apple-picking." - (Ch. 8)
The drive for war is often justified by othering the enemy and portraying them as villainous monsters. When Paul sees a group of Russian prisoners, he realizes they are simply men like him. All of them have been forced to fight a war they do not understand or believe in.
All Quiet on the Western Front - Key takeaways
- All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque.
- A young German soldier recounts the horrors of life and death in the trenches of WWI. Having volunteered to serve his country, the soldier learns the fallacies of patriotism, nationalism, and "just" wars.
- The novel explores the impact of war and the soldier's struggle to survive in conflict.
- Remarque uses first-person narrative and short, punchy prose to reflect the realities of life in war.
- Generations of antiwar activists and pacifists have embraced All Quiet on the Western Front as an important statement against wars.
References
- Fig. 2 - Tell That To The Marines by James Montgomery Flagg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tell_That_To_The_Marines_Recruitment_Poster.jpg
- Fig. 3 - Kaiser at the Front from The Library of Congress, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaiser_at_front_LOC_8079895990.jpg
- Fig. 4 - Erich Maria Remarque by Willem van de Poll: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Remarque_in_gesprek,_zittende_in_een_armstoel_in_zijn_woonkamer_in_de_villa_in_P,_Bestanddeelnr_254-4723.jpg
- Fig. 5 - Battlefield from Rijksmuseum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Slachtoffers_van_de_strijd_bij_Spionkop_in_Zuid-Afrika_Battlefield._Spion%27s_Kop_24.2.00_(titel_op_object),_RP-F-F01113-Q.jpg
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Frequently Asked Questions about All Quiet on the Western Front
What is All Quiet on the Western Front about?
All Quiet on the Western Front is about the real experience of war and the long-lasting impact conflict has on soldiers. remarque questions many of the myths behind nationalist ideas and the drive for war.
Is All Quiet on the Western Front a true story?
Although All Quiet on the Western Front is based on real historic events, it is not a true story.
Who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front?
All Quiet on the Western Front was written by German author Erich Maria Remarque.
What is a summary of All Quiet on the Western Front?
All Quiet on the Western Front follows a young German soldier as he experiences the grim realities of war.
What style is All Quiet on the Western Front written in?
All Quiet on the Western Front is written in present tense first-person narrative.
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