By: Erich Maria Remarque

 -narrated by Paul Bäumer,  a young man who fights in the German army on the French front in World War I.  Paul and his friends from school joined the army voluntarily  patriotic speech from their teacher, Kantorek.

 Paul Bäumer - protagonist and narrator ◦ kind, compassionate, and sensitive ◦ war teaches him to detach himself from his feelings. Stanislaus Katczinsky -  Paul’s best friend; Kat  has a family at home.  resourceful, always finds food, clothing, and blankets

 Albert Kropp - ◦ intelligent ◦ analyzing the causes of the war ◦ leads to antiwar sentiments  Müller - ◦ hardheaded, ◦ questions their postwar plans.  Tjaden - ◦ a wiry young man with a voracious appetite. ◦ a deep grudge against Corporal Himmelstoss.

 Kantorek - ◦ A pompous, ignorant, authoritarian schoolmaster  Franz Kemmerich - ◦ contracts gangrene, and his leg has to be amputated. Dies in Chapt 2, ◦ reader’s first encounter with the meaninglessness of death  Joseph Behm - ◦ first to die in the war. ◦ did not want to enlist, but he caved under pressure

 Detering - ◦ young man with a wife ◦ homesick for his farm and family.  Gérard Duval - ◦ French printer with a wife and child at home ◦ first person that Paul kills  Leer - ◦ first in Paul’s class to lose his virginity.  Haie Westhus -  gigantic, burly man  a peat-digger before the war.

Kindervater - -a bed wetter like Tjaden. Lewandowski -A patient in the hospital where Paul recuperates. -He wants to have sex with his visiting but can’t due to a fever Mittelstaedt - -a training officer and enjoys tormenting Kantorek

 Opens with German soldiers fighting  8 return of 150 men  Paul describes his fellow soldiers  men line up for breakfast.  cook insists that he is only allowed to distribute single rations; heated argument, distribute all of the food.  Every soldier is intimately acquainted with his stomach and intestines  Kemmerich, in the hospital with a thigh wound.  The men go to see Kemmerich, who is unaware that his leg has been amputated.  They will have to keep watch until Kemmerich dies and then take the boots before the orderlies steal them.

 main theme: the horror of war and its effect on the ordinary soldier.  “It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. “ QUOTE :

 before the war Paul wrote poetry- Now, he feels empty and cynical, “only facts are real and important to us.”  men of his generation were cut off from life unlike the older married men  He believes that had Himmelstoss had not hardened the men, their experiences on the front lines would have driven them insane.  Kemmerich tells Paul to give his boots to Müller.

 A group of new recruits arrives to reinforce  Kat is a cobbler by trade, but he has an uncanny knack for making the most of life on the front.  Kat thinks the generals and national leaders should battle one another  Quotes: “Give them the same grub and the same pay and the war would be over and done in a day.”  “Revenge is black pudding.” Himmelstoss is a bully as a drill Sergeant The boys plot their revenge on him They wait after a pub night, put a pillow sack over his head, pull his pants down and whip him.

 Quote: On the front, men are transformed from soldiers into “human animals.”  The soldiers carry wire and iron rods to the front  sounds of wounded horses hurts… Detering disturbed by this  A flurry of bombs then lands around them.  They take cover in a nearby graveyard  a recruit lying on the ground with his hip a mess of flesh and bone splinters at the joint  End his life?  A flurry of bombs then lands around them.  They take cover in a nearby graveyard  a recruit lying on the ground with his hip a mess of flesh and bone splinters at the joint  End his life?

 Paul describes the unsanitary conditions of life at the front (lice).  Himmeltoss is caught tormenting his recruits, excessively, sent to front  Müller begins asking everyone what they would do if the war ended suddenly.  Resourceful Kat prepares the goose for a meal  Kropp and Tjaden are put on trial for insubordination  Tjaden receives three days mooning Himmeltoss

 Head back and they pass a schoolhouse: shattered by shells.  Fresh coffins are piled by the dozens next to it  their own shells are beginning to fall in their trenches—the barrels on the guns are worn out.  The soldiers have to fight the fat, aggressive “corpse” rats to protect their food.  Large rations of cheese and rum are doled out to the men, and every man receives numerous grenades and ample ammunition.  The men remove saw blades from their bayonets because the enemy instantly kills anyone caught with this kind of blade on his bayonet.  the dugout suffers a direct hit. (Himmeltoss cries)  Haie receives a fatal wound. When the Second Company is relieved, only thirty-two of the original 150 men remain.

 Himmeltoss tries to make admends with food and easy jobs  The boys meet women  Paul gets a 14 day leave, mom has cancer, he feels the “Strangeness” at home.  Paul runs into the old professor.  Informs Kemmerick’s mom of his death.

 Paul reports to the training camp. Next to the camp is a prison for captured Russian soldiers  food is scarce, starving, and stricken with dysentery  They are suffering individuals, and Paul cannot see them as his enemies.  Paul’s father and sister visit and give Paul some jam and potato cakes that his mother made for him  Depressing - Russians

 Paul returns to the front, he finds Kat, Müller, Tjaden, and Kropp still alive and uninjured. He shares his potato cakes with them.  Disappointment with Kaiser arrival  Returning from “No man’s land” Paul hides in shell hole only to find a Russian  Returns to tell comarades,

 Paul, Tjaden, Müller, Kropp, Detering, and Kat have to guard a supply dump in an abandoned village.  They take advantage of the opportunity to eat and sleep as much as they can.  the enemy sees the smoke rising from the chimney and bombs  For three weeks, the men live a “charmed life” before they are moved again.  Kropp and Paul are wounded by a falling shell.  For three weeks, the men live a “charmed life” before they are moved again.  Kropp resolves to commit suicide if they amputate his leg. Paul’s leg is broken and his arm is wounded

 Kropp’s fever does not improve, so his leg has to be amputated  Lewandowski, a forty-year- old soldier, is recuperating from a bad abdominal injury. (Catholic Hospital)  He is excited that his wife is coming to visit him with the child she bore after he left to fight two years before.  Paul heals well, goes home, Albert Kropp depressed.

 The German army continues to weaken, but the war rages on  soldiers, life is no more than the constant avoidance of death.  Leer bleeds to death from a thigh wound. The summer of 1918 is horrific. Though they are obviously losing, the Germans keep fighting.  Quote: “coins of different provinces”; now, they are “melted down,” and they all “bear the same stamp.”  Kat wounded, Paul carries him back