All Quiet on the Western Front seminar questions
Discuss the teacher’s Kantorek impact on his pupils.
Kantorek is portrayed as initially an inspiration to the young men. As an older, wiser and influential (and very patriotic) figure for the young men, he encourages our protagonists to enlist in the army.
He somewhat manipulates the boys into enlisting by encouraging them to be the Iron Youth.
He represents politicians of the time.
Baumer expresses how his generation are more significantly impacted by being a soldier because the older generations have lives outside of the army. But for Baumer and friends, they have only known school and war. And during their school days, they were encouraged to enlist. This creates a divide between his generation and the older generation to which Kantorek belongs.
Baumer expresses how Kantorek knows nothing of war and its horrors, which shows how the ideal of war which Kantorek pushed on his students was false. He is shown as an outdated, naive character who is blinded by imperialism. At the same time, Baumer doesnt blame Kantorek as an individual, but perhaps his generation as a whole.
“Naturally we couldnt blame Kantorek for this.”
“There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best - in a way that cost them nothing. And that is why they let us down so badly.”
What features do you find in Paul Bäumer that make him in particular suitable or unsuitable for war?
Baumer presents the war very matter-of-factly, especially when the action becomes violent and graphic. This shows how he is desensitised to war, which makes him a suitable soldier that can maintain composure in the face of conflict and remains resilient. In comparison to the young recruits, Baumer focuses on the job at hand and concentrates on surviving.
He used to write poetry, which explains how he can explain certain scenes so beautifully.
Baumer is clearly traumatised. While this means he is alert and on-guard, the way in which the novel flicks between memories, graphic imagery, daydreams and time jumps, shows how Baumer is not always present and his emotional trauma could distract him.
Baumer shows compassion towards the other soldiers, and later becomes more aware of the human being underneath the enemy uniform. This could be interpreted as a sign of weaknesses, rather than as the ideal killing machine. He feels guilt.
Baumer is loyal to his comrades.
When he returns home, he struggles to interact with others.
Are the young men in All Quiet on the Western Front in particular vulnerable in a war?
Baumer clearly thinks so. They are still kids and have had no life outside of school and war. They don’t have their own individual identities or prospects for the future, which prevents them from dreaming of life beyond the war/surviving the war. They are naive to the reality of war.
All the men are vulnerable.
The older soldiers are less agile than the new, sometimes enthusiastic recruits. The younger men have been trained to fight and indoctrinated into believing that the war effort is of utmost importance, but the older men may not have had the same experience.
Is Himmelstoss a typical drill sergeant, we might find in every army?
Yes, he is strict and enjoys the brutality and power that comes along with commanding and humiliating these men.
However, he does not command the respect of the recruits and fails to inspire the men.
He develops compassion and empathy when he joins the front. He transforms from a bully into a comrade by helping the others get food. War seems to humanise him.
Katczinsky or Kat stereotyp or role model for the practical, good soldier?
Resourceful → finds food wherever.
The other men really respect Kat and trust in his judgement and experience.
Baumer especially expresses his strong love for Kat as a friend, a brother and a role model.
Does the novel romanticise war?
The novel clearly takes an anti-war stance. I don’t believe it romanticises war.
At times, the novel seems to romanticise the time when the men aren’t on the frontlines, but I think this is more to emphasise the importance of comradeship and peacetime than war itself.
How are women portrayed?
Kemmerich’s mother: loving and grieving.
Paul’s mother: food is in short supply, sick and out-of-touch with reality.
Nurses: desensitised, overworked and unsympathetic.
3 women in a French village: willing to sell their bodies for soldiers’ rations.
The film, unlike the book, includes a romance, so women seem to play a much bigger role.
Although women do not play a big role in the book, they are all, like the men, portrayed as victims of war.
What do you make of the film version from 2022?
Political figures are not included in the novel in order to highlight the effects of war on the ordinary soldier who is often forgotten as cannon fodder.
Depicts the camaraderie between the men really well.
Lecture II
Eksteins: The novel is a criticism of war and its effects on the young generation that were forced to fight; it is not a memoir or a retelling of WWI. At the beginning of the novel, Remarque declares his neutrality on war and that his work was “not an accusation nor a confession.” However, Eksteins points out that it was both. He highlights how the novel criticises particularly the older generation (shown by characters like Himmelstoss and Kantorek) who idealise war and happily send younger men to their deaths. Remarque also heavily drew from his own experiences on the front while writing the novel and expresses the futility the young men feel, especially at having no future prospects beyond war.
PTSD was not discussed in WWI. Freud was one of the first to consider emotional trauma.
The novel highlights the dichotomy between the young and old; military and civilian; working and upper classes. However, it blends the line between enemy and human being.
Left-wing critics often felt that Remarque had failed by not having his soldier revolt openly. Do you agree?
For: They somewhat revolt against Himmelstoss?
Against: the novel emphasises the powerlessness of the individual, ordinary citizen and how the soldiers must blindly follow orders, even if it leads to death. If Baumer revolted, perhaps he would be executed. This would also not follow historical events. Remarque’s portrayal of the soldiers humanises them and allows the reader to sympathise with these characters, who represent any ordinary man and even people in your own life. By heroising Baumer by having him revolt would lead to some disconnect between the reader and the soldiers. Baumer and friends are also shown to go straight from school to the army, so are lacking in political knowledge and experience in civilian life to give them a reason to revolt.
Can the comradeship in the novel be described as something positive coming out of the war?
For: The only happiness Baumer gets from his service is the brotherhood he has with the other recruits. The way in which Remarque describes the comradeship is often quite romantic and romanticised, so perhaps he would describe it as something positive.
Against: No, all of his friends died in the end, so the comradeship lead to even more pain.
Does Remarque strip the mythology from the idea of heroism?
Remarque shows that the propaganda surrounding war is not true and shows us that war is only about survival and enduring brutality, not heroism.
Is the novel about losing all human dignity and values and instead becoming an automaton, a killing machine?
For: The men blindly kill in service to their country. The awful conditions in the trenches force them to abandon civility and dignified hygiene. Especially the new recruits are shown to start this process.
Against: It is not about becoming an automaton, but about fighting for survival. The novel emphasises how the men are stripped back to their animal selves (“we have become wild beasts”) and rely on their primitive drive for survival to get them through the fight, even if that means killing. The war even humanises some of the characters like Baumer and Himmelstoss who come to see the enemies as people, rather than “faceless targets.”
Do you think that the 3rd person narration at the end of the novel reporting Paul Baumer’s death spoils the narrative?
For: Throughout the novel, Baumer’s first person narrative helps us sympathise with the soldiers and understand that there is a person beneath the uniform.
Against: It doesn’t spoil the narrative because when the perspective switches, we realise that in the grand scheme of things, Baumer (like the rest) is insignificant. This is emphasised by the final line: All quiet on the Western Front.
Why do you think the Nazis forbid the novel?
The Nazis wanted to glorify war and bolster imperial German militarism in order to fuel support for the war effort coming into the lead up to WW2.
Is the portrayal of women in this war novel a necessity caused by a patriarchal society?
the few women in the novel are caregivers/nurses, grieving mothers or sexualised fantasies.
the lack of women in the novel attests to the patriarchal views that women are weaker and more sensitive.