By: Erich Maria Remarque
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-narrated by Paul Bäumer,
a young man who fights in the German army
on the French front in World War I.
Paul and his friends from school joined the
army voluntarily
patriotic speech from their teacher, Kantorek.
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Paul Bäumer - protagonist and narrator
◦ kind, compassionate, and sensitive
◦ war teaches him to detach himself from his
feelings.
• Stanislaus Katczinsky  Paul’s best friend; Kat
 has a family at home.
 resourceful, always finds food, clothing, and blankets
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Albert Kropp ◦ intelligent
◦ analyzing the causes of the war
◦ leads to antiwar sentiments
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Müller ◦ hardheaded,
◦ questions their postwar plans.
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Tjaden ◦ a wiry young man with a voracious appetite.
◦ a deep grudge against Corporal Himmelstoss.
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Kantorek ◦ A pompous, ignorant, authoritarian schoolmaster
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Franz Kemmerich ◦ contracts gangrene, and his leg has to be
amputated. Dies in Chapt 2,
◦ reader’s first encounter with the meaninglessness
of death
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Joseph Behm ◦ first to die in the war.
◦ did not want to enlist, but he caved under pressure
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Detering ◦ young man with a wife
◦ homesick for his farm and family.
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Gérard Duval ◦ French printer with a wife and child at home
◦ first person that Paul kills
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Leer ◦ first in Paul’s class to lose his virginity.
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Haie Westhus gigantic, burly man
a peat-digger before the war.
Kindervater -a bed wetter like Tjaden.
Lewandowski
-A patient in the hospital where Paul
recuperates.
-He wants to have sex with his
visiting but can’t due to a fever
Mittelstaedt -
-a training officer and enjoys tormenting
Kantorek
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Opens with German
soldiers fighting
8 return of 150 men
Paul describes his fellow
soldiers
men line up for
breakfast.
cook insists that he is
only allowed to distribute
single rations; heated
argument, distribute all
of the food.
Every soldier is intimately
acquainted with his
stomach and intestines
Kemmerich, in the
hospital with a thigh
wound.
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The men go to see
Kemmerich, who is
unaware that his leg has
been amputated.
They will have to keep
watch until Kemmerich
dies and then take the
boots before the
orderlies steal them.
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main theme: the
horror of war and
its effect on the
ordinary soldier.
QUOTE:
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“It will try simply to
tell of a generation
of men who, even
though they may
have escaped
shells, were
destroyed by the
war. “
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before the war Paul
wrote poetry- Now, he
feels empty and
cynical, “only facts are
real and important to
us.”
men of his
generation were cut
off from life unlike
the older married
men
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He believes that had
Himmelstoss had not
hardened the men,
their experiences on
the front lines would
have driven them
insane.
Kemmerich tells
Paul to give his
boots to Müller.
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A group of new recruits
arrives to reinforce
Kat is a cobbler by trade,
but he has an uncanny
knack for making the
most of life on the front.
Kat thinks the generals
and national leaders
should battle one
another
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Quotes: “Give them the same
grub and the same pay and the
war would be over and done in a
day.”
“Revenge is black pudding.”
• Himmelstoss is a bully as a drill
Sergeant
• The boys plot their revenge on him
•They wait after a pub night, put a
pillow sack over his head, pull his
pants down and whip him.
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Quote: On the front,
men are transformed
from soldiers into
“human animals.”
The soldiers carry wire
and iron rods to the
front
sounds of wounded
horses hurts…
Detering disturbed by
this
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A flurry of bombs then
lands around them.
They take cover in a
nearby graveyard
a recruit lying on the
ground with his hip a
mess of flesh and bone
splinters at the joint
End his life?
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Paul describes the
unsanitary conditions of life
at the front (lice).
Himmeltoss is caught
tormenting his recruits,
excessively, sent to front
Müller begins asking
everyone what they would
do if the war ended
suddenly.
Resourceful Kat prepares
the goose for a meal
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Kropp and Tjaden are put
on trial for insubordination
Tjaden receives three days
mooning Himmeltoss
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Head back and they pass a
schoolhouse: shattered by
shells.
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Fresh coffins are piled by the
dozens next to it
their own shells are
beginning to fall in their
trenches—the barrels on the
guns are worn out.
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The soldiers have to fight the
fat, aggressive “corpse” rats
to protect their food.
Large rations of cheese and
rum are doled out to the
men, and every man receives
numerous grenades and
ample ammunition.
The men remove saw blades
from their bayonets because
the enemy instantly kills
anyone caught with this kind
of blade on his bayonet.
the dugout suffers a direct
hit. (Himmeltoss cries)
Haie receives a fatal wound.
When the Second Company is
relieved, only thirty-two of
the original 150 men remain.
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Himmeltoss tries to
make admends with
food and easy jobs
The boys meet women
Paul gets a 14 day
leave, mom has cancer,
he feels the
“Strangeness” at home.
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Paul runs into the old
professor.
Informs Kemmerick’s
mom of his death.
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Paul reports to the
training camp. Next to
the camp is a prison
for captured Russian
soldiers
food is scarce,
starving, and stricken
with dysentery
They are suffering
individuals, and Paul
cannot see them as his
enemies.
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Paul’s father and sister
visit and give Paul
some jam and potato
cakes that his mother
made for him
Depressing - Russians
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Paul returns to the front, he
finds Kat, Müller, Tjaden,
and Kropp still alive and
uninjured. He shares his
potato cakes with them.
Disappointment with Kaiser
arrival
Returning from “No man’s
land” Paul hides in shell
hole only to find a Russian
Returns to tell comarades,
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Paul, Tjaden, Müller, Kropp,
Detering, and Kat have to
guard a supply dump in an
abandoned village.
They take advantage of the
opportunity to eat and sleep
as much as they can.
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For three weeks, the men live
a “charmed life” before they
are moved again.
the enemy sees the smoke
rising from the chimney and
bombs
For three weeks, the men live
a “charmed life” before they
are moved again.
Kropp and Paul are wounded
by a falling shell.
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Kropp resolves to commit
suicide if they amputate his
leg. Paul’s leg is broken and
his arm is wounded
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Kropp’s fever does not
improve, so his leg has to
be amputated
Lewandowski, a forty-yearold soldier, is recuperating
from a bad abdominal
injury. (Catholic Hospital)
He is excited that his wife is
coming to visit him with the
child she bore after he left
to fight two years before.
Paul heals well, goes home,
Albert Kropp depressed.
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The German army continues
to weaken, but the war
rages on
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soldiers, life is no more
than the constant avoidance
of death.
Leer bleeds to death from a
thigh wound. The summer
of 1918 is horrific. Though
they are obviously losing,
the Germans keep fighting.
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Quote: “coins of
different
provinces”; now,
they are “melted
down,” and they all
“bear the same
stamp.”
Kat wounded, Paul
carries him back