TESTS AND ANSWERS

TEST 1

_____ 1. Remarque's principal purpose in the novel was to

A. present a vivid portrayal of the horrors of World War I

B. show how a German generation was affected by the war

C. set the record straight about trench warfare

_____ 2. Paul and his friends were encouraged to enlist by

A. the editorials written by Heff Krauss

B. the town's leading politician, Heinrich Boll

C. the schoolmaster, Kantorek

_____ 3. A symbolic action which points up the war's effect upon morality was

A. Muller's attempt to get the boots

B. the theft of Kemmerich's watch

C. Paul's killing of Gerard Duval

_____ 4. In the process of training the young soldiers, Himmelstoss tried to

A. break their spirits

B. inspire them with Germany's glorious destiny

C. develop their sense of mutual responsibility

_____ 5. Katczinsky's great skill lay in his ability to

A. cut through red tape

B. scrounge for food

C. be the best marksman in the company

_____ 6. The halfway existence of the soldiers between life and death is best illustrated by the scene in the

A. hospital

B. cemetery

C. field depot

_____ 7. One of the terrible images of the battle scene is the

A. dying horses

B. bayonet charge by "the gladiators"

C. suicide of the frightened soldier

_____ 8. The theme which is NOT developed in this novel is that war

A. is inevitable

B. destroys ambition

C. helps develop brotherhood among the soldiers

_____ 9. The several references to butterflies in the novel

A. provide a contrast to the horrors of war

B. are inserted to show Paul's scientific interests

C. introduce Paul's vivid dream sequences

_____ 10. Paul shows compassion for Kemmerich's mother by

A. sending her an optimistic letter in her son's name

B. telling her that Franz is recovering satisfactorily

C. lying about the manner of her son's death

11. All Quiet is sometimes said to be lacking plot and characterization. Is this true? If so, does it harm the novel?

12. In wartime, society seems to suspend the Ten Commandments for soldiers. Explain this idea and use examples from the novel to support your points.

13. All through the war, Paul and his friends seem obsessed with food, comfort, and physical things. Give several examples involving food and comfort and explain how these examples provide an indication of how the war is progressing.

14. Explain the meaning of this statement: "Chance rules a soldier's life at the front." Give examples which support your explanation.

15. Explain why Paul objects to his and his friends' being called "Iron Youth."

TEST 2

_____ 1. One sign of the deteriorating conditions in their army was

A. the substitution of crepe paper for cloth bandages

B. the desertion of many German officers

C. the making of coffee out of soy beans

_____ 2. Paul realized that the difference between his first and second leaves was that

A. his family had started to blame the Kaiser

B. the civilians now expected to lose

C. he had changed

_____ 3. "Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late" are Paul's words to

A. the dead Frenchman

B. the dying Kemmerich

C. the locksmith, Tjaden

_____ 4. Paul's mother, father, and teachers

A. attempt to build up his morale when he is on leave

B. are out of touch with the reality of Paul's situation

C. symbolize the wholesome side of Germany

_____ 5. Paul's conclusions about the Russian prisoners of war are that they

A. are inferior to the Germans

B. cannot be trusted

C. are similar to the Germans

_____ 6. Paul is unable to understand

A. how both sides can be fighting for a just cause

B. why Germany has not been victorious

C. why the Kaiser lied to the troops

_____ 7. Paul wonders what will become of his generation now that

A. "our education has been forever blunted"

B. "our knowledge of life is limited to death"

C. "our morals have been corrupted beyond redemption"

_____ 8. Josef Hamacher, the soldier in Paul's hospital ward, said that war is a glorious time for all the

A. generals

B. munitions makers

C. surgeons

_____ 9. A final irony of the novel is that Paul's death came

A. in a camp accident

B. shortly before the Armistice

C. as he, left for home on a furlough

_____ 10. On the day that Paul died, the army communique read:

A. All quiet on the Western Front

B. Our brave forces have repelled a vicious enemy thrust

C. Casualties were light in defense of the Fatherland

11. Using examples to support your points, support or refute Paul's statement, "A hospital alone shows what war is."

12. Using several incidents that occurred while Paul was home on leave, explain why he concluded, "I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world."

13. Although it is not true, Paul tells Kemmerich's mother that Kemmerich died instantly and without pain. Defend, or at least explain, the motives for Paul's actions.

14. Explain why Paul and his friends believe that the war has ruined them for everything.

15. Using several examples, discuss the vital role played by friendship in this novel.

ANSWERS

TEST 1

1. B 2. C 3. B 4. A 5. B 6. B 7. A 8. A 9. A 10. C

11. This question asks you to do two things: to decide whether All Quiet is weaker than other stories in plot and characterization and then to decide whether or not that weakness- if it exists- harms the novel. When you think of stories in which the main characters' desires cause each event, and each event in turn causes the next one, then you must admit that the plot of All Quiet is not set up that way. What causes the events in this novel occurs some place in government or the military command, and it doesn't really matter what the characters want. The war will still grind on. In fact, you could rearrange the order of events in the story, or even omit some of them, without really changing the author's message. Much the same thing is true of the characters. Although some of them really come alive for us in vivid scenes- the stubborn, red-headed cook; the cruel Himmelstoss; the heroic company commander dying for his men- still, they do not change much in the course of the story, and their wishes and desires do not affect the course of the story. As to whether or not this lack of strong plot and characterization harms the story, you could argue convincingly that it does not. The whole point of the story is to show how World War I tore apart the lives of the young men involved, and setting up the story as a series of events in apparently random order shows exactly how little control they had over the forces destroying them. -

12. The Ten Commandments direct people to worship God and to avoid killing, stealing, lying, and adultery. You might begin by restating the first sentence of the question as your topic sentence, and then continue by giving examples of how things usually considered sinful are expected of soldiers. The most obvious, of course, is killing. A soldier must kill to protect his own life. The killing of Duval in Chapter 9 or the mad charge in Chapter 6 would provide good examples. An example of the need for stealing to supplement poor rations could be one of the Kat stories Paul recalls in Chapter 3. A case for lying is Paul's report to Kemmerich's mother of how Kemmerich died. Illicit sex occurs in the evenings with the French girls (Chapter 7) and might be defended as an assertion of life and an attempt to regain elements of civilian life. Society- through the army- even provides brothels for the men! As for worshiping God, the only god the men seem to have is Chance or maybe the Earth itself (see Chapters 4 and 6). In your concluding sentences you might comment on which commandments have to be suspended for physical survival and which ones seem to have more to do with psychological or emotional survival.

13. It's important to read a question all the way through. Note especially the last 13 words of this one: you are expected to relate what you say about supplies and comfort to how the war was going. It will therefore be easier for you to answer if you take your examples from the last few chapters of the book: the conditions at aid stations and hospitals, the unusualness of the supply dump assignment, and, at the front, the scarcity of food, shells, decent clothing, and weapons, especially as compared with the apparently boundless supplies of the British and the Americans. The contrast makes it clear that the better supplied side is going to win. You might also include mention of technological innovations which are simply nonexistent on Paul's side: tanks and flamethrowers, especially, are mentioned in Chapter 11.

14. An obvious response to this question is that pure luck sometimes seems to determine who lives and who dies on a battlefield, that no matter how good a soldier someone is, his skill is no guarantee that he will survive. For examples to support such a statement, you might use the time Paul left his trench to visit another and came back to find it shelled. Or you might use the freak accident which killed Kat at the end of the novel. Review the discussion in this guidebook of the battle chapters (4, 6, and 11) or reread those chapters for further examples.

15. Paul himself discusses the phrase "Iron Youth" in Chapter 2. Reread that section. In your essay, discuss each word of the phrase. First explain why iron is not an appropriate description of skinny boys, either physically or emotionally, and then explain why youth is no longer a good description of the boys mentally or emotionally.

TEST 2

1. A 2. C 3. A 4. B 5. C 6. A 7. B 8. C 9. B 10. A

11. Turn to Chapter 10 where Paul and Kropp are sent to a Catholic hospital behind the lines. After Paul is well enough to move about, he discovers just how many different categories of wounded men are in the same hospital. Find that section and review Paul's ideas. if you agree with Paul, you might simply state Paul's meaning and then support it with figures from history as to how many men were killed, wounded, or maimed for life by World War I. (See the Setting section in this guidebook.) You might also add that seeing all these injuries neatly categorized in a civilian setting- a place where everyone is expected to have full use of his body- makes them seem even more horrible than at the front where you expect injury and death. If, on the other hand, you disagree with Paul and think that the battlefield shows more truly what war is, you might use examples from Chapter 6 (the long chapter detailing what an endless period of trench warfare involved) or the screaming horses from Chapter 4. The crying of the horses dramatizes in quite a different way how directly contrary to nature war is.

12. This question takes you directly to Chapter 7 in which Paul goes home on leave. Examples follow one another quite rapidly within that chapter. Ones you might want to include are the major who does not seem to understand anything about war and insists on marching and saluting, and the armchair strategists who tell Paul he couldn't possibly understand the overall picture of the war since he is fighting in only one part of it. Even Paul's mother, who seems more understanding than they, reduces the war to a discussion of how to get a safe job and the need to be careful of French women. In each example state what happened or was said and show that it is foreign to Paul by contrasting it with the kinds of things he has been experiencing at the front.

13. Paul's lies to Frau (Mrs.) Kemmerich can be explained in several ways, some more flattering to Paul than others. Reread two sections: the end of Chapter 2 where Paul sits next to the dying Kemmerich, and the section in Chapter 7 where he actually talks to Kemmerich's mother. Then decide for yourself which motive is uppermost or whether Paul may have had mixed motives: a desire to spare her feelings, a desire to give Kemmerich's death greater dignity than it really had, the fact that he just didn't care and wanted to get a distasteful job done with the least trouble, or even a revenge motive- to deprive her of the truth because she blamed him for surviving.

14. It is Kropp who actually says, "The war has ruined us for everything." The comment occurs in a discussion of plans for after the war in Chapter 5 and refers specifically to Paul, Kropp, and their classmates. In your answer contrast Paul and his classmates with other soldiers who have jobs or wives to return to. The Characters section of this guidebook will help you review which soldiers have something or someone to go back to. Consider also why it will be difficult for Paul and his classmates to take any job seriously after the war. What has happened to make all ordinary jobs or studies look pointless to them?

15. Friendship is such a constant theme of the novel that you should be able to find examples in nearly every chapter. For a quick review of some of the scenes involving comradeship see the Theme section of this guidebook, and consider also how the classmates' beating of Himmelstoss and, later, the change in Himmelstoss demonstrate different aspects of friendship.