"We are not youth any longer. He didn't have any experience when going into the war but he still went in with an open mind and a kind heart. Paul later figures that the training taught by Himmelstoss made them "hard, suspicious, pitiless, and tough" but most importantly it taught them comradeship. In a twist of fate, Kantorek is later called up as a soldier as well. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. There was a problem loading your book clubs. It's considered to be one of the greatest and most important works in the genre. Remarque often emphasizes the boys in the story were not forced to join the war effort against their will but rather a sense of patriotism and pride. Although publishers had worried that interest in World War I had waned more than 10 years after the armistice, Remarque's realistic depiction of trench warfare from the perspective of young soldiers struck a chord with the war's survivors—soldiers and civilians alike—and provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative, around the world. [23], This article is about the 1929 novel. All Quiet on the Western Front is extremely assured. [16] On February 14, 2020, Edward Berger replaced Donaldson as director and Daniel Brühl is starring without Fimmel[17] Unlike the previous film adaptations, the remake will be in German. As he becomes the new staff cook, to prove his friendship he secures two pounds of sugar for Bäumer and half a pound of butter for Tjaden. [citation needed] The enormous popularity the work received was a point of contention for some literary critics, who scoffed at the fact that such a simple work could be so earth-shattering. Grunert said: “’All Quiet on the Western Front’ to this day is indeed the definitive novel about war and the utter senselessness of it. In addition, the men enjoy themselves while living off the spoils from the village and officers' luxuries from the supply depot (such as fine cigars). International Encyclopedia of the First World War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front&oldid=1021897009, German novels adapted into television shows, Works originally published in Vossische Zeitung, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2016, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 May 2021, at 08:16. [10] When the Nazis were re-militarizing Germany's military the book was banned as it was deemed counterproductive to German rearmament. All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated by Paul Bäumer, a young man of nineteen who fights in the German army on the French front in World War I. Paul and several of his friends from school joined the army voluntarily after listening to the stirring patriotic speeches of their teacher, Kantorek. Directed by Lewis Milestone. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front. With All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque emerged as an eloquent spokesman for a generation that had been, in his own words, "destroyed by war, even though it might have escaped its shells." Leer is an intelligent soldier in Bäumer's company, and one of his classmates. all quiet on the Western Front phrase. The book and its sequel, The Road Back (1930), were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany. In anticipation of Kemmerich's imminent death, Müller was eager to get his boots. The first chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front sets the tone quietly for the violent and often gruesome story to follow. What will happen afterwards? However, Bäumer and his comrades have a chance to get back at Himmelstoss because of his punishments, mercilessly whipping him on the night before they board trains to go to the front. He is also fond of horses and is angered when he sees them used in combat. In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power, All Quiet on the Western Front became one of the first degenerate books to be publicly burnt;[6] in 1930, screenings of the Academy Award-winning film based on the book were met with Nazi-organized protests and mob attacks on both movie theatres and audience members. Kat has the most positive influence on Paul and his comrades on the battlefield. With his next shot he kills the flamethrower, and immediately afterwards an enemy shell explodes on his position blowing off his chin. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. I read "AQOTWF" in 8th grade and remember liking the book. He is killed later in the book after being shot point-blank in the stomach with a "light pistol" (flare gun). Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (March 12, 1987). Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." “We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”. When the Nazis came to power, Remarque left Germany for Switzerland; he lost his German citizenship, his books were burned, and his films banned. Instant downloads of all 1443 LitChart PDFs (including All Quiet on the Western Front). that is the foundation for any piece of literature to be considered great, well, Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2018, Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" is an unabridged, in-your-face, brutally gripping war story that shines brightly alongside Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" and Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Paul carries him back to camp on his back, only to discover upon their arrival that a stray splinter had hit Kat in the back of the head and killed him on the way. They must guard a supply depot in a village that was evacuated due to being shelled too heavily. Unable to add item to List. JP32. All Quiet on the Western Front Questions and Answers. Before the war, Tjaden was a locksmith. Ultimately, it is a story of humanity across nations. Feeling ashamed that I had never read this novel but heard so much about it, I finally got a copy and burned through the pages in 3 days. He appears in the sequel, The Road Back. Kropp is wounded towards the end of the novel and undergoes a leg amputation. Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades. An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture. As he was dying "quite conscious and in terrible pain", he gave his boots which he inherited from Kemmerich to Paul. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Haie, in addition, has a good sense of humour. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. This internal destruction can be found as early as the first chapter as Paul comments that, although all the boys are young, their youth has left them. Katczinsky leaves for a short while, returning with straw to put over the bare wires of the beds. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in All Quiet on the Western Front, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. [7], However, objections to Remarque's portrayal of the World War I German army personnel were not limited to those of the Nazis in 1933. Throughout the book, Paul frequently remarks on how much of an eater he is, yet somehow manages to stay as "thin as a rake". In fact the mindlessness of it and that they were killing people who could have been friends. Please try again. Katczinsky, a recalled reserve militiaman, was a cobbler (shoemaker) in civilian life; he is older than Paul Bäumer and his comrades, about 40 years old, and serves as their leadership figure. The literal translation of "Im Westen nichts Neues" is "Nothing New in the West," with "West" being the Western Front; the phrase refers to the content of an official communiqué at the end of the novel. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. In 1979, the film was remade for CBS television by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas of The Waltons as Paul Bäumer and Ernest Borgnine as Kat. [12], The main artistic criticism was that it was a mediocre attempt to cash in on public sentiment. Carrying his old school books with him to the battlefield, he constantly reminds himself of the importance of learning and education. If you’ve not seen the Milestone film, put that on your must-watch list. It was directed by Lewis Milestone, and stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander. All Quiet on the Western Front is a true classic. 'Nothing New in the West') is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. At one point he secures four boxes of lobster. Kropp was in Paul's class at school and is described as the clearest thinker of the group as well as the smallest. Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship. [8], The book was also banned in other European countries on the ground of it being considered anti-war propaganda; Austrian soldiers were forbidden from reading the book in 1929, and Czechoslovakia banned it from its military libraries. However, he is killed before he can be rescued. All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the key books of its generation. [9] Remarque makes a point in the opening statement that the novel does not advocate any political position, but is merely an attempt to describe the experiences of the soldier. On the train back home, Albert takes a turn for the worse and cannot complete the journey, instead being sent off the train to recuperate in a Catholic hospital. He is a power-hungry corporal with special contempt for Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of his trainees during their basic training in preparation for their deployment. In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave.". Bertinck is genuinely despondent when he learns that few of his men had survived an engagement. The last full chapter of All Quiet on the Western Frontbegins The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades. By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is retreating. War knows no heroes. Book Summary The record of several schoolmates who represent a generation destroyed by the dehumanization of World War I's trench warfare, All Quiet on the Western Front tells of their enlistment in the army at the urging of their teacher, Kantorek, whose wisdom they trusted.