Difference between revisions of "All Quiet on the Western Front"

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All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, about the horrors of that war and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. The book was first published in German as Im Westen nichts Neues in January 1929. It sold 2.5 million copies in twenty-five languages in its first eighteen months in print^[unverified]. In 1930 the book was turned into an Oscar-winning movie of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone.

Title and translation[edit]

The 1929 English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation is in fact "Nothing New in the West" (Im Westen Nichts Neues), with "West" being the war front, which was in fact a routine dispatch used by the German Army. This title in German adds to the terrible irony of the actual situation. In English the phrase would be unclear, whereas "All Quiet..." does sound like the English used for such matters.

Brian Murdoch's 1994 translation renders the phrase as "there was nothing new to report on the western front" within the narrative. Explaining his retention of the original book-title, he says:

Although it does not match the German exactly (there is a different kind of irony in the literal version...), Wheen's title has justly become part of the English language and is retained here with gratitude.

Separately, the phrase "all quiet on the western front" later became popular slang for a lack of action (in reference to the Phony War in World War II's Western Front).

Plot summary[edit]

The story follows the experiences of Paul Bäumer: a soldier whose teacher inspires him to join the German army shortly after the start of World War I. He arrives on the Western Front with his friends (Tjaden, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters) and meets Stanislaus Katczinsky, known as Kat. The older Kat soon becomes Paul's mentor and teaches him about the realities of war. Paul and Kat swiftly become almost brothers, bonded by the hardships of the war.

Paul and his friends have to endure day after day of non-stop bombardment. Eventually it all becomes clear to him: war is entirely pointless. All his friends say that they are fighting the war for a few national leaders whom they have never met and most likely never will. They are the only people that can gain anything from this war, not Paul and his friends.

The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery as do so many other war stories, but rather gives a realistic view of the hell in which the soldiers found themselves. The monotony, the constant artillery fire, the struggle to find food, and the overarching role of chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers, are all described in detail. Unlike many other war novels, here individual battles have no names and are of little significance. Rather, one after another each battle offers a new chance for Paul and his comrades to be killed. The armies fight battles to gain pitifully small pieces of land, only to lose them again later. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally depleted and hardened. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."

Paul's visit on leave to his home highlights the cost of the war on his psyche. The town was hit by artillery but has not changed since he went off to war; however, he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world." He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople. His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things." An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and marching on Paris, while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture. Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender yet restrained relationship. The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other. He thinks to himself, "Ah! Mother, Mother! how can it be that I must part from you? Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave."

Main Characters[edit]

Paul Bäumer[edit]

Paul Bäumer is the narrator. He is convinced to enlist in the German Army for WWI by his schoolmaster, Kantorek. He's 19 years old when he goes to war.

Erich Remarque uses Paul to magnify some of the experiences he viewed himself as a WW I veteran.

He is kind hearted and always willing to lend a hand.

His deeds include: giving his remaining cigarettes to Russian prisoners and replacing the new recruits saw blade bayonets with normal bayonets, catching a goose to cook with Kat in an intimate lean-to, visiting his dying mother, and trying to save a French soldier in a shell hole after stabbing him to save his own life.

Along with others of his group, he teaches the basics of war to the new recruits, but in their excitement, they do everything wrong.

In the film adaptations, he was shown killed whilst reaching for a butterfly (film) or drawing a bird (television movie).

Paul is also used to describe the highly heightened sense of war, and the remorse when killing the French soldier mentioned above. He goes through the man's pockets, learns about his life and family and (briefly) dedicates himself to their welfare.

The day on which Paul is finally killed was otherwise militarily uneventful, with the German army dispatches merely noting Im Westen nichts Neues, which, as noted above, translates literally to Nothing new in the West. This brings home that Paul's death - being only one among millions - is nothing special.

Albert Kropp[edit]

Perhaps Paul's closest friend, Kropp was in his class at school and is described as the clearest thinker of the group. Kropp is wounded near the novel's conclusion, and he suffers an amputation. It was hinted that he died after the amputation.

Tjaden[edit]

A skinny locksmith of Paul's age and the biggest eater of the company, Tjaden ( pronounced JA-den) did not volunteer for the war. Labeled as a "piss-a-bed", Tjaden received unfair treatment from Corporal Himmelstoss for urinating in his sleep; This system of 're-education' involved hunting up another bedwetter, who was quartered in the same bunk as Tjaden. The man on top would urinate at night, and the fellow below would be switched from bottom the next night so that he could retaliate. He was a very greedy young man who always found time to eat a good hearty meal.

Müller[edit]

The most pragmatic of the group, Müller is most noted for drilling his comrades with questions about what they're going to do after the war; he is the one most trying to hold onto their past. Paul mentions that in the middle of battle, Müller mutters physics problems to himself. He is also the inheritor of Kemmerich's boots, for which he fervently begs whilst Kemmerich is dying, showing how the war turns a man from an individual into a heap of supplies which they might as well make use of. The boots are later passed on to Paul after Müller is shot in the stomach at point blank.

Haie Westhus[edit]

Haie is described as being tall and strong, and Paul identifies him as being slightly older than he, and a peat-digger by profession. Haie also has a good sense of humor. He receives a wound in the back, during a battle, large enough for Paul to see his lung when he breathes, and he dies soon after.

Stanislaus Katczinsky[edit]

Also known as Kat. Of an older age than Paul Bäumer and his younger comrades, Katczinsky worked as a cobbler in civilian life. As an elderly figure, Kat serves as a leadership figure for Paul and his friends, as well as a literary model showcasing the differences between the younger and older soldiers, the latter whom Paul describes as being connected to their former life, whereas he and the men his age have their parents, schooling, and a few, a girl. When he is killed, it is as though a great hero has died.

Kat is also well-known for his ability to scrounge nearly any necessary item, above all food. He is known for his finding of 4 boxes of lobsters. Paul describes it as a "sixth-sense" kind of ability. Examples of this are provided throughout the book; for instance, one night Paul and his company of men are quartered in a factory without rations nor comfortable bedding; Katczinsky leaves for a short while, returning with straw to put over the wire bedding. Later, to cure the hunger of some of his men, Kat retrieves bread, a bag of horse flesh, a lump of fat, a pinch of salt, and a pan in which to cook the food.

He was wounded in the end of the story, just before Paul himself is killed. Paul carries him back to camp on his back, only to discover when he arrives at the medics that a shell fragment pierced Kat in the head during the journey, and that he had died. He is thus the last of Paul's close friends to die in battle (for it can be assumed that Albert Kropp lived [*see above]), and it is his death that finally demoralizes Paul to point that he does not care if he dies or not, as he says that he can face the rest of his life without fear, that the coming years "...can take nothing from me. They can take nothing more..."

Only a few lines of text later, Paul is dead, and he is described as having a look of relief on his face at the moment he passed away. It was "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Minor Characters[edit]

Kantorek[edit]

Kantorek served as Schoolmaster to Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, and Müller. Acting "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a proponent of the war and convinces Bäumer and the rest of his class to join the war effort. Out of twenty enlistees, this includes one Joseph Behm, the first of the class to fall - Ironically, Behm was the only fellow that did not want to fall in line.

Also ironic, Kantorek is later called up as a Territorial, only to be grilled by one of the same students he convinced to enlist.

He was tortured by Mittelstädt who "copied him to perfection". Mittelstädt would imitate his snobbiness. "Inadequate, Kantorek, quite inadequate." "Territorial Kantorek, do you call those buttons polished?" "Look at Böttcher now, there's a model for you to learn from." "Territorial Kantorek, we have the good fortune to live in a great age, we must embrace ourselves and triumph over hardship."

Bertink[edit]

Lieutenant Bertink, often referred to as The Company Commander, is the leader of Paul's company. His men have a great respect for him. He is shown to carry a great fondness for his men. He lets them eat the extra rations for men that died while the chef argues that they may only eat their share, and is shown as being shocked when so few of his men survive an engagement. Bertink kills a flamethrower team that would have killed all of the protagonists, but is shot in the chest while doing so and is soon after hit in the chin by a shell fragment that wounds him and kills Leer as well.

Himmelstoss[edit]

Easily stirring the hatred of the reader, Himmelstoss is a power-hungry corporal with a special dislike of Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of soldiers inferior in rank. Bäumer and his friends mercilessly whip Himmelstoss the night before they board trains to go to the front. After Himmelstoss later joins them on the front, he is a coward who hides and claims that he is wounded because he has a scratch on his face. Paul beats him and when a lieutenant comes along looking for men for a trench charge, he joins and leads the charge. He carries Haie Westhus' body to Paul after he is wounded. Later he asks for forgiveness from his old students. He was to become the new staff cook. He brings two pounds of sugar for Paul and half a pound of butter for Tjaden to prove his alliance.

Detering[edit]

He was a farmer who loved his farms. He went mad when he saw a cherry blossom, which reminded him of home too much and urged him to leave. He was found and set before a "field tribunal", but is never heard of again. He was especially fond of horses and was angered at those who used horses in the war. "It is of the vilest baseness to use horses in the war."

Josef Hamacher[edit]

Hamacher is a patient at the Catholic hospital where Paul and Albert Kropp are staying. He has an intimate knowledge of the workings of the hospital. He also has a "shooting license," certifying him as sporadically not responsible for his actions, though all evidence points to his being quite sane.

Franz Kemmerich[edit]

A lifelong friend of Bäumer and his comrades, Kemmerich is wounded at the beginning of the book. Later he had his foot amputated, and afterwards died of an infection in his wounds. He was in possession of some yellow knee-high boots salvaged from a British aircraft pilot. It was his final acceptance of his fate when he gave them to Muller. Muller, in turn, passed them on to Paul, who promised them to Tjaden upon his death. The boots thus become a link between the comrades.

Major themes[edit]

There are many central themes in the book. Among them is that war is total nonsense. For example, none of the characters has ever seen a Frenchman before the war, much less have reason to kill them, but that is now what they are forced to do. Some of the soldiers ponder how the war was started, why it was declared, and whom it benefits. Nobody has any answers. There are also other themes that include: comradeship/friendship, the humanity of the "enemy", the hypocrisy of authority figures, loss of hope for the future, animal instincts or how war reduces men to animals and many others such as loss of innocence.

The Horror of War[edit]

The archetypical war novel romanticizes war and extolls the heroes of the story, however this book shows a vivid, realistic, and hellish portrait of war. World War I saw the development of many new destructive innovations such as poison gas and machine guns; all of which made killing easier. The novel shows these weapons being used for butchery on a grand scale; for instance, battles lasting for four months.

Paul describes the horrors of war throughout the book. The trenches and fortifications are shelled continually, poison gas blankets the battlefield, snipers shoot at anyone with their head above ground. Paul even sees the horrible results from the trench mortars which literally blows men out of their clothes. Finally, the American troops come and the German lines disintegrate. Vivid descriptions are presented throughout the book, combined with gritty little details (Kat explains at one point why a shovel with sharpened edges is so much better in close-up combat than a bayonet.) The book explores the incredible numbers of men who were killed or wounded every day in the war.

Effect On Soldiers[edit]

The physical and mental hardships pressed on soldiers during times of war can be absolutely astounding, and in trench warfare these hardships were ever-present. Bullets, bombs, mortars, and disease easily destroy men by the tens of thousands, while those who live to fight another day are subject to dealing with the mental anguish of the violent deaths of their comrades and the separation from civilian life.

The book also emphasizes that the war was worst for the 'lost generation', those who went straight from school or college into the trenches, as the narrator had done.

The older men still have firm ties to their earlier lives - they have property, wives, children, jobs and interest, and these bonds are all so strong that the war can't break them. But for us twenty-year-olds there are only our parents, and for some of us a girlfriend. That isn't much, because at our age parental influence is at its weakest, and the girls haven't really taken over yet.

We are like children who have been abandoned and we are as experienced as old men, we are coarse and superficial - I think we are lost. (Chapter 6)

Trench Warfare[edit]

Remarque exemplifies the psychological transformation that soldiers undergo when heading into battle. Paul observes this phenomenon as he and his comrades near the front on their mission to lay barbed wire. They cease to become men, and instead, become beasts at the first sight of war.

To survive, it is necessary for the soldiers to sacrifice the thoughtful and analytical parts of their minds and rely, instead, on animal instinct. Paul describes men who have been walking thoughtlessly along and suddenly find themselves thrown to the ground just in time to avoid a shell, without consciously having been aware that a shell was approaching and without having intended to leap to avoid it. Paul calls this instinct a “second sight” and says that it is the only thing that enables soldiers to survive a battle. In this way, Paul implies that battles are animalistic and even subhuman, a large aspect of the devastation that the war wreaks on a soldier’s humanity.

Nature[edit]

The landscape on the front is barren, but when Paul goes on leave, he sees nature. Nature represents escape; it is beautiful and pure. When traveling by train, Paul describes the beautiful mountains and plains of Germany. He wonders why this nature is being destroyed on the front; he wants to preserve this beauty, not destroy it. Also, when he sees the French countryside, he sees it is not different from the German countryside; why should he destroy this either? A disturbing incident involving a group of army horses, terribly wounded in a bombardment and screaming with pain, demonstrates the war's violation of innocent nature.

The author uses nature as a tool to change the tone of his writing to a more reflective and peaceful one, in contrast to the rest of the book. To temporarily escape from the horrors of war, Paul and his friends swim across a canal late at night for a relaxing evening with several French women who live on the other side. Also, after a particularly violent battle, Paul observes birds flitting tranquilly about the shell-torn fields, and sees two butterflies, miles from any vegetation, perching on the teeth of a skull. He notes that he has seen birds successfully raise their young in the midst of the trenches. This highlights the human absurdity of the war, and also hints at nature's reassuring capacity to go on about its business despite the surrounding turmoil.

Animal Instinct[edit]

In many parts of this book, through Paul Bäumer, Erich Remarque expresses the human spirit transition into a more bestial nature. It is apparent that Erich Remarque believes that the nature of war is so barbaric, that human nature must be lowered to match the level of barbaric war.

There are many examples of Paul Bäumer reverting to animal instincts. One such time is when he finds himself stuck in a shell hole, surrounded by enemy soldiers. He realizes that if any of the enemies were to join him in the hole, it would mean instant death for him, unless he could act without thinking, and stab instantly. He waits in the hole, hoping that it would not happen. As time goes by, a Frenchman jumps into the shell-hole. Paul stabs the man instinctively --only realizing afterwards that he has killed another human being. Later the barbarity of war leaves his spirit and he experiences guilt, then remorse, and only returns to rationality when he is able to leave the hole and the body within it.

Remarque also makes two other important points through this transformation from human instinct to animal instinct. Bäumer's transformation is emotional as well as mental. The horrors that they witness are too much for the average person to handle. Bäumer also knows that his normal human reactions would cause him to panic and be killed, but this detachment helps them to cope as well as survive.

Relations to Other Books[edit]

Romeo and Juliet[edit]

"He buries his face and his limbs in her... She is his only friend, his brother, his mother;... new-won life... he would now be a heap of mangled flesh... that has thrown us to the ground and saved us... there would not be one man alive"(54-55).

This can refer to the famer's soliloquy in Romeo and Juliet:

"The Earth that's nature's mother is her tomb; What is her burning grave, that is her womb"(Act IV, Scene III, v 9-10).

Soldiers fall to the ground for protection--this can be viewed as being reborn, just similarly to a mother's womb protecting her helpless child, continuing the story's Loss Of Innocence theme. A soldier can also drop to the ground after being shot or otherwise killed, thus making the earth his tomb as bodies and dirt pile up on his corpse.

Homer's Odyssey[edit]

In All Quiet, hope is presented as a major key to surviving the horrors of war. Homer's epic describes an occasion upon which Odysseus returned home and received a bag. He was instructed not to open it, but during the night one of his crew members did so, thus discovering that hope was the sole remaining item contained within. Remarque also portrayed hope as dangerous, because it allows one to believe, for better or worse, that all will somehow turn out well in the end, regardless of how improbable or impossible such a notion seems.

Film, TV, and Theatrical Adaptations[edit]

Film[edit]

Main article: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film)

In 1930, an American film of the novel was made, directed by Lewis Milestone. The screenplay was by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, C. Gardner Sullivan, with uncredited work by Walter Anthony and Milestone. It stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for its producer Carl Laemmle Jr., and an Academy Award for Directing for Lewis Milestone. It was the first all-talking non-musical film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It also received two further nominations: Best Cinematography, for Arthur Edeson, and Best Writing Achievement for Abbott, Anderson and Andrews.

TV film[edit]

Main article: All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film)

In 1979, the film was remade for television by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas of The Waltons as Paul Bäumer.

The Road Back[edit]

Main article: The Road Back

The Road Back, another book written by Erich Maria Remarque, is about a different group of soldiers trying to cope with postwar Germany: dealing with the defeated German society after the war, trying to go to school, and trying to live a normal life.

The book was banned during Nazi rule, the film's content was watered down to avoid a German boycott, and Remarque was stripped of his German citizenship in 1938.

See also[edit]

• Paths of Glory

External links[edit]

• Teacher's Guide at Random House
• CliffsNotes
• Spark Notes
• test
• 2 Speeches from the Movie in Text, Audio, Video from AmericanRhetoric.com
• All Quiet on the Western Front Excerpts (German, English, Russian)

Quote Sources[edit]

Quotes in "Effect on Soldiers" are taken from the Ballantine Books 1982 paperback edition of All Quiet on the Western Front as translated from the German by A. W. Wheen.