ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

    Comprehension Questions – Chapter 5

1. Why do you think the author includes such a mundane detail as the killing of lice? 

2. How do the recruits feel about the impending arrival of Himmelstoss?  Do you think he is aware of how the men feel?  Do you think he cares?

3. Why do you think Muller enjoys asking everyone what they would do if  it were peacetime?  Does everyone enjoy speculating about that?  Why is everyone surprised by Westhaus’ answer?  How do you exlain the way he feels?

4. The narrator tells us that Himmelstoss “has already had some rot dinned into him about getting a shot in the back” (pg. 82).  What does that mean? 

5. How can you tell that Himelstoss has lost much of the control he once had over the men?  Why has he lost it? 

6. Throughout the novel, the author refers to the fact that the war is harder on young men than older ones.  Where do you see that theme in this chapter? 

7. Why do you think the young men spent so much time planning to get back at Himmelstoss?  What is Paul’s tone when commenting about “that is our sole ambition: to knock the conceit out of a postman.”  Is he ashamed? 

8. Why is Tjaden on trial?  Why doesn’t he get in more trouble than he does?  Do you think he deserves his punishment? 

9. Why does Kropp get one day’s open arrest?

10. What do you think would have happened if Tjaden or Kropp  had acted as they did toward a supervisor in the workplace?

11. How do Paul and Kat feel as they eat goose?  Would they have been friends during peacetime?

12. What is the tone of the final sentence in the chapter: “The outlines of the huts are upon us in the dawn like a dark, deep sleep?”  How content or agitated does Paul seem at this point in the story?