English II
Mrs. Melberg
All Quiet on the Western Front
Study Guide Questions
Directions: All questions are to be answered on notebook paper. Answers must
incorporate the question, and must be in complete sentences. At the end of
every 4 chapters (1-4, 5-8, 9-12), study questions will be collected and a quiz
given on those chapters.
Chapters 1-4
Chapter 1
1. What is the setting of the story?
2. What does Paul say about men like Kantorek?
3. What did the first bombardment and the first killing do to Paul’s faith in the adult
world?
4. Is this story necessarily just about Germans?
5. What is the mood or atmosphere of the story?
6. What is one theme of the story so far?
7. What does the theft of Kemmerich’s watch represent?
Chapter 2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why does Paul’s generation feel that it is a wasteland?
What kind of person is Himmlestoss?
What have been two important results of Paul’s military training?
What is the significance of Kemmerich’s death scene?
What is the irony in the comment, “We are the Iron youth?”
What kind of character is Paul?
Chapter 3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
For what does Katzcinsky have a reputation?
How does Kropp think wars should be fought?
What were Himmelstoss’s drill exercises?
What had been Himmelstoss’s profession before the war?
What does Kropp say happens to little men like Himmelstoss when they get stars
or stripes?
6. What reason does Kropp give for the officers making drill exercises so difficult?
Chapter 4
1. What is the importance of the “earth to a soldier?”
2. What influence does the front have on soldiers?
3. What two situations in battle serve as a comic relief from the grim battle being
waged?
1
4. What does the death of the horses represent?
5. What does the graveyard scene say about the value of human life?
6. Why is this such an important chapter in the novel?
Chapters 5-8
Chapter 5
1. How does the first sentence tell us that the mood of the chapter will be very
different than that of the previous chapter?
2. What do the following characters plan to do after the war is over?
a. Kropp
b. Detering
c. Haie
3. What does Muller try to make them realize about their goals?
4. Why does Kropp feel that “They has ruined us for everything?”
5. How does Paul explain his close relationship with Kat?
Chapter 6
1. How does the first paragraph of this chapter indicate that the mood of this chapter
will be different than the previous one?
2. The front was referred to as a whirlpool. What does Paul call it now?
3. Why is “Chance” capitalized?
4. What does the incident about rats say about how man compares to the animals?
5. How do new recruits react to their first combat?
Chapter 7
1. Baumer says the men become animals at the front. What do they become when
they rest?
2. What is Paul’s attitude about those who die?
3. Why do the men make jokes?
4. How does Paul feel when he first enters his home? When he talks to his mother?
5. How do his father’s and mother’s attitudes toward his fighting differ?
6. What does his room represent to Paul?
7. Who is Boettcher? Who was he?
8. What does Paul tell Kemmerich’s mother?
9. Why is he willing to swear a lie?
10. Why does Paul regret having been on leave?
Chapter 8
1. What description in this chapter proves to Paul that he is no longer indifferent, but
that he is sensitive?
2. Are the descriptions of the Russian prisoners sympathetic or unsympathetic?
3. According to Paul, how do the Russians seem different from the Germans?
4. According to Paul, what has made these “silent figures” his enemies and what
could make them friends?
2
Chapters 9-12
Chapter 9
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What has changed about his regiment when Paul returns?
Why is Paul disappointed in the Kaiser?
What do the men conclude about the causes of war?
What happens to Paul as he is out on patrol?
What thoughts does he have as he lies in the “bowl?”
How does Paul react differently to this killing than to the others?
What contrast does the author draw at the end of the chapter when Paul returns to
his lines?
Chapter 10
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What assignment are Paul and his comrades given?
What criticisms are made of the war-time medical practices?
Why does Paul say the war is a glorious time for surgeons?
How does the hospital show “what war is?”
To what is a soldier’s knowledge of life limited?
Chapters 11-12
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Why does Tjaden eat fast?
What happened to Detering?
What is ironic about the factory owners in Germany?
What is the only thing the men have to look forward to?
How does Paul react to Kat’s death?
Why is Paul no longer afraid?
What is the irony of the book’s final sentence?
Vocabulary: For each word, you will need to list—on a separate piece of paper—four
things: 1) the word, 2) the part of speech, 3) the definition, and 4) the word in context,
complete with page number.
Chapters 1-4
1. voracity
2. requisition
3. ceaseless
4. cunning
5. queue
6. derive
7. confound
8. ostracize
9. disgruntle
10. retaliate
Chapters 5-8
1. louse
2. tedious
3. scrounge
4. wrath
5. insubordination
6. repress
7. debauch
8. stupor
9. cleave
10. pallid
3
Chapters 9-12
1. compensation
2. wretch
3. destitute
4. barrage
5. irresolute
6. fastidious
7. munitions
8. despicable
9. emaciate
10.borne