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Summary: In this unsparingly realistic account of
the lives and deaths of a group of German boys on the Western front,
the reader senses the tragedy of a whole generation blighted by the
War. It is difficult to think of any significant experience of a man
at the front that is not represented; everything is there--horror, coarseness,
lewdness, humor, pathos, comradeship, even the unexpected beauty of
nature. Gradually death takes toll of it all.
Questions:
1. Why does the narrator remark “Today is wonderfully good.”
(page 7)? What is good about the war? Is this feeling one of the reasons
war persists?
2. Why did Paul and his friends enlist? What might their lives have
been like if they had not?
3. Who is the first of Paul’s group to die? What doesn’t
Kemmerich want to give up? (page 32) Why are they useless to him? Who
wants them?
4. What sort of leader is Himmelstoss? How do the other soldiers get
even with him?
5. How does Remarque portray the technological and military innovations
of the war? How do those innovations affect the lives of the soldiers?
6. After the Second Company is reduced by nearly half, replacement
troops arrive. They seem much younger than Paul and his friends. Why
do they seem so? How much younger are they? Why do Paul and men of his
age group fear the end of the war as much as they fear the war itself?
7. In quiet moments they discuss what they would do if peace occurred.
What are some of their peacetime dreams?
8. What do the Russian prisoners teach Paul?
Related Information:
Discussion questions provided by Ali MacDonald and SparkNotes.
This discussion guide made possible with public
funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Sponsored
by the Mohawk Valley Library System and participating member libraries.
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