All Quiet

Chapters 1 & 2

1.    How can you tell that the recruits have had to give up much of their modesty and need for privacy?

2.    What pleasures do Paul and the others have?

3.    How worried do they seem to be bout the possibility of dying?

4.    What does Paul mean when he says, “It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men” (pg 10)? What does this have to do with Kantorek?

5.    Who was Behm?

6.    Paul says Behm hesitated about joining the war effort.  Why didn’t he refuse to join up, then? What was the result?

7.    In what ways does Paul feel that the adults have let the young men down?

8.    According to Paul, how is war different for younger soldiers than it is for older ones? Do you think that is true?

9.    How have the young men’s attitudes toward war changed?

10. What does Paul mean, “We learned that a bright button is weightier than four volumes of Schopenhauer” (pg 21)?

11.   Do you think Himmelstoss is sadistic—or is he giving his men good preparation for the dangers they will meet?  What does Paul think?

12.   Does Kemmerich know that he is dying?  Does Paul know?

13.  Do you think Paul does the right thing when he cuts off Kemmerich’s talk of death by saying, “Don’t talk rubbish”? Why is Paul angry with the doctor?

14.  Prediction: How many of Paul’s friends introduced in Chapter One will be alive at the end of the novel?