ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN
FRONT
Chapter Content Questions
Chapters 1- 4
Chapter One: Windfall
• “It is true, we have no right to this windfall. The Prussian is not so generous. We
have only a miscalculation to thank for it”- page 8
• “The Sergeant-Cook still took no notice. That may do for you, he said, but where
are the others? “They wont be fed by you today, they’re either in the dressing
station or pushing up daisies”- page 9-10 , “and I have cooked for one hundred
and fifty men….Eighty men can’t have what is meant for a hundred and fifty”
page 10
• The soldiers in Paul’s company are quite thrilled about this windfall- they are
potentially going to receive almost double their portion of food. The cost of
course of such ‘generosity’ is that 70 men died in an attack earlier against the
English (page 8).
• Remarque is making a simple statement using the men and food- war changes
what is at the forefront of people’s minds, the reasons for getting benefits do not
matter so much in war
Chapter One: Windfall
• Tjaden:
voracious, Thin as a rake (pg. 7), Locksmith, 19
• Haie Westhus: 19, peat-digger- “who can easily hold a ration loaf in
his hand” pg. 9
• Katczinsky: leader, cunning, shrewd, cunning and hard bitten, 40,
face of the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders and a remarkable nose
for dirty weather, good food and soft jobs- pg. 9
Chapter One: Windfall
• Page 13: These are wonderfully care-free hours…
The men are behind the front lines (reserves and further back),
above them are balloons and anti-aircraft shells (clouds pg 13) and
around them is the sounds of the war, but they don’t sound like war,
the sounds have become natural to them- bumble bees (anti aircraft
shells). They are surrounded by a nice meadow, they read letters and
newspapers and smoke.
This paragraph is poetic- they are at war but it sounds like they are
relaxing in a farm field playing cards…
Chapter One: Windfall
• Page 15 last paragraph: Joseph Behm, ostracized, coward• ‘The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the
war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and
should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences
would be, were besides themselves with joy” page 16
Chapter One: Windfall
• Kantorek- page 16
• “The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in
our minds with greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the
first death we saw shattered this belief”.
Imagine the people in authority in your life. Parents and teachers and
coaches…is there not an assumption that we know what is right, we
know what is wise. Do you not come to use for advice. And then you
realise they are lying or they are not who you think they are…
Chapter One: Windfall
• Kemmerich’s boots- symbolic.
• Iron Youth- term given to Paul in the letter from Kantorek
Chapter Two:
• Corporal Himmelstoss- No. 9 Platoon training officer
• Strictest disciplinarian in camp and was proud of it (pg. 26)
• Himmelstoss’s job was to ‘harden’ the troops and inspire a Esprit de
Corps (morale) in them. Was he sadistic for a purpose?
• Pages 26-27
• Bayonet Practice
• “we became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious and tough- and that
was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked (page 29)
Chapter Two
• Kemmerich dies- ages 32-33
• “Come quick, Franz Kemmerich is dying.” He frees himself and asks
an orderly standing by: “Which will that be?”
• I have amputated 5 legs today
• Kemmerich’s face is still wet from his tears
• The boots go to Muller and his other things gets dispersed
Chapter Three
• Kat is amazing at finding food
• Page 39- the company arrives at a blown out factory to sleep and
they only have wire bedding- Kat arrives with arms full of straw
• Page 40 Kat goes off and comes back with a bag of horsemeat
• Page 41 “You take it from me, we are losing the war because we can
salute to well”- referring to the fact that since Tjaden didn’t salute a
major smartly enough they have to do an hours saluting drill. The
army is based on routine and orders that don’t reflect the true
reality of the situation- The Germans were notoriously strict in their
drill and routine.
Chapter Three
• Tjaden wets his bed, he does it at night in his sleep- page 46
• Revenge is black pudding- page 49
Black pudding is a sausage made from cooking blood until it becomes
solid when it congeals. It is then filled with fat and bread and other
things, sometimes vegetables. Its kind of nasty, as is the revenge
prank they pull on Himmelstoss. Page 48-49
Chapter Four
• The soldiers are doing wiring fatigue (fixing the damages barbed
wires)
• They are at the front (the reserve trenches)
• The earth is important- they live in it and die in it0 page 54-55
• “The front is a mysterious whirlpool”- page 54 Metaphor for the
front lines- Paul is in still water but he feels drawn into it, it pulls
you in….because of his position, his reality, why he is there.
Chapter Four
• Page 59- the fair haired recruit
• “like a child creeps under my arm, his head close to my breast”
• Page 60 the recruit reaches around- Gun shy
• Page 67 “The man on the ground is the recruit. His hip is covered with
blood; he is so exhausted…we lay the hip bare. It is one mass of
mincemeat and bone splinters…the lad wont walk anymore”
• Page 68- Then he opens his mouth and whispers: “Stay here-----”. He
whimpers like a child “Don’t go way”. Kat looks around and whispers:
“shouldn’t we just tale a revolver and put an end to it”
• Such a kid, young innocents- page 69
Chapter Four
• Page 60- 61- “Wounded Horses”
• “Shoot them! Shoot them, can’t you? Damned you again!”
• Last paragraph on page 61
• Page 62 “I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war”