TERM PAPER IDEAS

PAPERS BASED ON CHAPTERS OF THE NOVEL

1. Chapters 1 and 2: Study the obituary page in a local newspaper. Write a similar obituary for Franz Kemmerich. Use details from the novel for the general facts, and fill in with suitable additional ideas as needed.

2. Chapter 3: Choose Kat's theory of equal pay or Kropp's theory of having the leaders fight the war personally. Argue for or against the theory as being a good way to conduct war.

3. Chapter 3: Discuss the way Paul and his friends took revenge on Himmelstoss. Were they right or wrong to do what they did? (If you wish, you may include a comparison with how Mittelstaedt treats Kantorek in Chapter 7.)

4. Chapter 4: Explain the statement, "To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier."

5. Chapter 5: Explain how the goose incident shows that comradeship means everything to the soldier.

6. Chapter 6: Explain either why "every soldier believes in Chance" or why the men must fight "like wild beasts."

7. Chapter 7: Why is leave "a pause that only makes everything after it so much worse"? Consider the words and actions of Paul's family and acquaintances in your response.

8. Chapter 8: Paul guards Russian prisoners of war in this chapter. What does he seem to learn from this experience? What does he seem to have in mind as a possible goal for himself for after the war?

9. Chapter 9: Explain the difference between "heightened caution" and "animal fear."

10. Chapter 9: Contrast Paul's killing of Duval with Oellrich's sniping at the enemy. What makes their actions different?

11. Chapter 10: Write a paper of comparison and contrast based on the men's lives at the supply dump and at the hospital. Include such areas as food, physical comfort, and comradeship. Explain both what was alike in the two situations and what was different.

12. Chapter 10: Find out more about medicine during World War I. Was Paul's opinion of the medical profession justified? (You might also consider a comparison with medicine during the Korean Conflict as shown in reruns of the television series "M*A*S*H.")

13. Chapter 11: Something mentioned again in this chapter is the callous attitude that a soldier must take toward an individual death. This attitude is shared by the orderly in Chapter 2, Paul when he is talking to Kemmerich's mother in Chapter 7, the medical profession in Chapter 10, and the soldiers themselves. Why is this matter-of-fact attitude necessary?

14. Chapter 11: Study the obituary page in a local paper. Write a similar obituary for Stanislaus Katczinsky. Use details from the novel for the general facts, and make up suitable additional ones as needed.

15. Chapter 12: Study the obituary page in a local paper. Write a similar obituary for Paul Baumer. Use details from the novel for the general facts, and make up additional ones as needed.

16. Chapter 12: How do you feel about Paul's death in the last chapter? What did he have left to live for? Argue that his death was either tragedy or a blessing and explain what led you to your conclusion.

THE NOVEL AS A WHOLE

1. Explain the symbolic importance of the goose incident in the novel.

2. Explain the symbolic importance of the screaming of the wounded horses in the novel.

3. Explain the importance of Kemmerich's boots in the novel. What do they tell you about the historical situation? about the theme of friendship?

4. Explain the importance of Paul's daydreams in the novel. Are they present merely as a way for Remarque to show contrasts? Do they tell us something more about what happens to a soldier's inner values? Do they have no importance at all?

5. Explain the importance of the earth itself in the novel. Use examples from several different chapters in order to show how the earth is a source both of safety and of pain to the soldier.

6. Discuss the effectiveness of using first person narration in this novel. Why was it good or bad to have that particular soldier- Paul- telling it? Why not Kat or Kropp or Detering?

7. Discuss the author's use of contrasting scenes. How did this make the novel more vivid? How did it make it possible for you to visualize and to feel what was occurring? Use examples from the novel in your answer.

8. Go back to the introductory statement made by Remarque just before Chapter 1. Has Remarque fulfilled the purpose he set for himself. Explain the reasons for your answer.

9. Explain the psychological defense mechanisms soldiers cultivated in order to survive with some degree of sanity. What did they do to keep the war from getting to them?

10. Review the battle chapters (4, 6, 9, 11). List the words using onomatopoeia to describe the sights and sounds, and explain what effect these words have on the realism of the scenes.

11. Paul and his friends have several discussions about war. In addition, Paul's own thoughts go even deeper, to ideas about human nature. List the major conclusions you believe Paul reached about human nature. Use examples of his actions or thoughts to support your points.

FIRST PERSON WRITING

A. Select one of the following situations and become that person. Using "I," write out either your thoughts, or what you, as that person, would have written in your private diary. Be sure to use appropriate details from the novel, but also to make up additional ones suitable to the person and the situation.

1. You are Katczinsky. You have just been given a new group of recruits to take out on their first mission. You are looking at them and thinking about your own skills and luck and their chances of survival.

2. You are one of the three French girls. You are really hungry. You see the German soldiers swimming; they look like decent types. What are you thinking before you wave to them and start talking?

3. You are Himmelstoss, receiving a decoration from the Kaiser. You realize how very much you have learned. You are thinking with shame about how you treated the recruits and how things were at the front. You do not hold a grudge against Paul and his friends for beating you up.

4. You are Detering and you have had it. You are thinking about your life before the war and building up to your decision to desert.

B. Again, select one of the following situations and become the person indicated. Write the letter as that person would have written it, using his or her attitudes and ways of speaking.

1. You are Paul's sister. Write to him about the latest developments at home, now that your mother's cancer entirely confines her to bed and you have the responsibility for the household. What are your worries and concerns? How much are you willing to share or explain?

2. You are Paul. You still have Gerard Duval's wallet and the picture of his wife and child. No matter what Kat and Kropp said, you still feel a need to write to Madame (Mrs.) Duval and tell her how bravely her husband died. No one else can do it, but you want to do it kindly. Will you actually sign your name? will you tell her you were the one who killed him? Make these decisions and then write the letter.

3. You are Paul's company commander. Write to Paul's family to comfort them after Paul dies on such a quiet day, with rumors of a coming armistice filling the air.

INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

1. If no one had told you that All Quiet on the Western Front was set during World War I, how would you have determined what war was involved? More specifically, how would you have known that the novel occurs during the last two years of the First World War? Include in your response political, geographical, and technological allusions.

2. Read also Remarque's novel The Road Back. It discusses more fully some of Germany's postwar problems, problems hinted at in All Quiet. Trace the relationship of the problems from one novel into the next.

3. It is unfortunate but true that, historically, war has led to technological innovations. List new things first widely used in World War I and locate references in the novel which suggest the human impact of this technology of planes, tanks, poison gas, and so on.

4. World War I is the first war from which we have documentary photographs. Seek out books containing some of this photography, and discuss the probable impact of photography itself on people's reactions to the war.

5. In his ironic poem "War Is Kind," written in reference to the American Civil War, Stephen Crane contrasts the supposed glory of war with its reality. Locate a copy of the poem and apply its stanzas to Paul, his friends, and their families.

6. Locate the poem "Grass" by Carl Sandburg, first published in his 1916 connection, Chicago Poems. Identify the wars in which the battlefields mentioned were important, and comment on the tone of the poem: How does it relate to Remarque's view of human ability to learn from war? to his comments on the earth itself?

7. Explain how the two following novels develop the theme of a young man's complete disillusionment as a result of war: The Red Badge of Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane and All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) by Erich Maria Remarque.

8. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was a contemporary of Remarque's. He too believed that war caused a loss of values. Compare the moral collapse shown in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926) with Remarque's themes in All Quiet (1929). How do the two novels seem to express similar views? How do they differ?

9. Read Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (1929) and Remarque's A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1954). Both are love stories set during wartime. How are the two stories similar? How do they differ?

10. In 1649, Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace wrote of war as a glorious mistress in the poem, "To Lucasta, Going to the War." Locate a copy in an anthology of English literature and cite passages from All Quiet that suggest that Paul's elders and teachers still held this romantic view of war as a glorious, honorable pursuit.

11. Wilfred Owen was a very promising English poet killed in 1918 in World War I. His poems were published in 1920. Locate Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" and relate it to Remarque's account of the gas attack in Chapter 4. You may include other references to lung injuries such as those in the hospital section of Chapter 10.

12 Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) often wrote about the ironies involved in human behavior. In his poem "The Man He killed," he sounds a bit like Paul Baumer. Locate a copy in an anthology of English poetry, and cite passages from All Quiet on the Western Front in which Paul or Paul and his friends reach similar conclusions.