All Quiet on the Western Front
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| Author | Erich Maria Remarque |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Released | 1929 |
- For the film, see All Quiet on the Western Front (film).
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, about the horrors of that war and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. The book was first published in German as Im Westen nichts Neues in January 1929. It sold 2.5 million copies in twenty-five languages in its first eighteen months in print[citation needed]. In 1930 the book was turned into an Oscar-winning movie of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone. Although the typically used English translation (A. W. Wheen, 1929) gives the title as "All Quiet on the Western Front," the literal translation is in fact "Nothing New in the West": this title adds to the terrible irony of the actual situation but was dropped in favour of "All Quiet."
Separately, the phrase "all quiet on the western front" later became popular slang for a lack of action (in reference to the Phony War in World War II's Western Front).
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The story follows the experiences of Paul Bäumer: a soldier who joined the German army shortly after the start of the war. He arrives on the western front with his friends (Tjaden, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters) and meets Stanislaus Katczinsky, known as Kat. The older Kat soon becomes Paul's mentor and teaches him about the realities of war. Paul and Kat swiftly become almost brothers, bonded by the hardships of the war.
Paul and his friends have to endure day after day of non-stop bombardment. Eventually it all becomes clear to him: war is entirely pointless. All his friends say that they are fighting the war for a few national leaders whom they have never met and most likely never will. They are the only people that can gain anything from this war, not Paul and his friends.
The book focuses not on heroic stories of bravery as do so many other war stories, but rather gives a realistic view of the hell in which the soldiers found themselves. The monotony, the constant artillery fire, the struggle to find food, and the overarching role of chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers, all are described in detail. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally depleted and hardened. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."
Paul receives a period of leave from the army, and returns home temporarily. He finds it difficult to understand people at home anymore. While all the soldiers at the front wish for nothing more than peace, knowing that they are losing the war, civilians back home talk about marching on Paris. He is also indifferent to the significance of any of the battles. Battles have no names. Rather, one after another they offer a chance for him to be killed. Battle seems to be waged only to gain pitifully small pieces of land.
The day on which Paul is finally killed was otherwise militarily uneventful, with the German army dispatches merely noting Im Westen nichts Neues, which, as noted above, translates literally to "Nothing new in the West". This brings home that Paul's death -- being only one among thousands -- is insignificant.
[edit] Main Characters
[edit] Paul Bäumer
Paul Bäumer is the narrator. He is convinced to enlist in the German Army for WWI by his long-time teacher Kantorek, who promises that Paul will have a sense of satisfaction having done something with himself.
He's 19 years old when he starts the war.
Erich Remarque uses Paul Bäumer to magnify some of the experiences he viewed himself as a WW I veteran.
He is kind hearted and always willing to lend a hand.
[edit] Tjaden
A skinny locksmith of Paul's age and the biggest eater of the company, Tjaden did not volunteer for the war. Labeled as a "piss-a-bed", Tjaden received unfair treatment from Corporal Himmelstoss for urinating in his sleep; This system of 're-education' involved hunting up another bedwetter, who was quartered in the same bunk as Tjaden. The man on top would urinate at night, and the fellow below would be switched from bottom the next night so that he could retaliate.He was a very greedy young man who always found time to eat a good hearty meal.
[edit] Leer
A close friend to Paul, Haie and the others, Leer dies after being shot during an attack. After he bleeds to death, Paul can only remark of Leer, "What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician at school."
[edit] Müller
The most pragmatic of the group, he is most noted for grilling his comrades with questions about what they're going to do after the war. He is also the inheritor of Kemmerich's boots, for which he fervently begs whilst Kemmerich is dying, showing how the war turns a man from an individual into a heap of supplies which they might as well make use of. The boots are later passed on to Paul after Muller's agonizing death.
[edit] Stanislaus Katczinsky
Also called as Kat. Of an older age than Paul Baumer and his younger comrades, Katczinsky worked as a cobbler in civilian life. As an elderly figure, Kat serves as a leadership figure for Paul and his friends, as well as a literary model showcasing the differences between the younger and older soldiers, the latter whom Paul describes as being connected to their former life, whereas he and the men his age have their parents, schooling, and a few, a girl.
Kat is also well-known for his ability to scrounge nearly any necessary item, above all food. Examples of this are provided throughout the book; For instance, one night Paul and his company of men are quartered in a factory without rations nor comfortable bedding; Katczinsky leaves for a short while, returning with straw to put over the wire bedding. Later, to cure the hunger of some of his men, Kat retrieves bread, a bag of horse flesh, a lump of fat, a pinch of salt, and a pan in which to cook the food.
[edit] Minor Characters
[edit] Kantorek
Kantorek served as Schoolmaster to Paul and his friends, including Haie Westhus, Tjaden, Leer, and Muller. Acting "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a proponent of the war and convinces Baumer and the rest of his class to join the war effort. Out of twenty enlistees, this includes one Joseph Behm, the first of the class to fall - Ironically, Behm was the only fellow that did not want to fall in line.
Also ironic, Kantorek is later called up as a Territorial, only to be grilled by one of the same students he convinced to enlist.
[edit] Himmelstoss
Easily stirring the hatred of the reader, Himmelstoss is a power-hungry corporal with a special dislike of Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of soldiers inferior in rank. Baumer and his friends mercilessly whip Himmelstoss the night before they board trains to go to the front. After Himmelstoss later joins them on the front, he asks for forgiveness from his old students. He brings two packets of sugar for Paul and one pound of butter for Tjaden to prove his alliance.
[edit] Major themes
There are many central themes in the book. Among them is that war is total nonsense. For example, none of the characters has ever seen a Frenchman before the war, much less have reason to kill them, but that is now what they are forced to do. Some of the soldiers ponder how the war was started, why it was declared, and whom it benefits. Nobody has any answers. There are also other themes that include: comradeship/friendship, the humanity of the "enemy", the hypocrisy of authority figures, loss of hope for the future, animal instincts or how war reduces men to animals and many others such as loss of innocence.
[edit] The Horror of War
The main theme of All Quiet on the Western Front is the brutality of war. The archetypical war novel romanticizes war and extolls the heroes of the story, however this book shows a vivid, realistic, and hellish portrait of war. World War I saw the development of many new destructive innovations such as poison gas, machine guns, airplanes and tanks; all of which made killing easier and even more impersonal. The novel shows these weapons being used for butchery on a grand scale; for instance, battles lasting for four months.
Paul describes the horrors of war throughout the book. The trenches and fortifications are shelled continually, poison gas blankets the battlefield, snipers shoot at anyone with their head above ground. Paul even sees the horrible results from the trench mortars which literally blows men out of their clothes. Finally, the American troops come and the German lines disintegrate. Vivid descriptions are presented throughout the book. Nothing short of being there could show the sheer numbers of dead and wounded every day in the war.
[edit] Effect On Soldiers
The physical and mental hardships pressed on soldiers during times of war can be absolutely astounding, and in trench warfare these hardships were ever-present. Bullets, bombs, mortars, and disease easily destroy men by the tens of thousands, while those who live to fight another day are subject to dealing with the mental anguish of the violent deaths of their comrades and the separation from civilian life.
Tying into one of the central themes of the book, Remarque says at the beginning, "This book is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure for those who stand face to face with it. It will simply try to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war." == ==
[edit] Nature
The landscape on the front is barren, but when Paul goes on leave, he sees nature. Nature represents escape, it is beautiful and pure. When traveling by train, Paul describes the beautiful mountains and plains of Germany. He wonders why this nature is being destroyed on the front; he wants to preserve this beauty, not destroy it. Also, when he sees the French countryside, he sees it is not different from the German countryside, why should he destroy this either? The author uses nature as a tool to achieve a change in the tone of his writing to a more reflective and peaceful one, in contrast to the rest of the book.
A temporary escape from the horrors of war involves Paul and his friends swimming across a river late at night in order to get with several French women who live on the other side.
[edit] Animal Instinct
In many parts of this book, through Paul Bäumer, Erich Remarque expresses the human spirit transition into a more beastial nature. It is apparent that Erich Remarque believes that the nature of war is so barbaric, that human nature must be lowered to match the level of barbaric war.
There are many examples of Paul Bäumer reverting to animal instincts. One such time is when he finds himself stuck in a shell hole, surrounded by enemy soldiers. He realises that if any of the enemy were to join him in the hole, it would mean instant death for him, unless he could act without thinking, and stab instantly. He waits in the hole, hoping that it would not happen. As time goes by, a Frenchman jumps into the shell-hole. Paul stabs the man instinctively --only realising afterwards that he has killed another human being. Later the barbarity of war leaves his spirit and he experiences guilt, then remorse, and only returns to rationality when he is able to leave the hole and the body within it.
[edit] Presence of Death
Constantly throughout the book, the soldiers are followed by the frightful prescence of death. Every time that they go to battle, they pass by their own graves, something that would send chills going down the average person's back.
[edit] Film, TV, and Theatrical Adaptations
[edit] Film
In 1930, an American film of the novel was made, directed by Lewis Milestone. The screenplay was by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, C. Gardner Sullivan, with uncredited work by Walter Anthony and Milestone. It stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for its producer Carl Laemmle Jr., and an Academy Award for Directing for Lewis Milestone. It was the first all-talking non-musical film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It also received two further nominations: Best Cinematography, for Arthur Edeson, and Best Writing Achievement for Abbott, Anderson and Andrews.
[edit] TV film
In 1979, the film was remade for television by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas of The Waltons as Paul Bäumer. The remake is generally considered less successful than the original and received little acclaim.
[edit] Stage
A two hour stage adaptation by Robin Kingsland was held at the Nottingham Playhouse 11th to 25th February 2006 [1].
[edit] The Road Back
The Road Back, another book written by Erich Maria Remarque, is about a different group of soldiers trying to cope with postwar Germany: dealing with the defeated German society after the war, trying to go to school, and trying to live a normal life.
The book was banned during Nazi rule, the film's content was watered down to avoid a German boycott, and Remarque was stripped of his German citizenship in 1938.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Teacher's Guide at Random House
- CliffsNotes
- Spark Notes
- All Quiet on the Western Front at the Internet Movie Database
- 2 Speeches from the Movie in Text, Audio, Video from AmericanRhetoric.com
[edit] Quote Sources
Quotes in "Effect on Soldiers" are taken from the Ballantine Books 1982 paperback edition of All Quiet on the Western Front as translated from the German by A. W. Wheen. <span class="FA" id="ka" style="display:none;" /> de:Im Westen nichts Neues es:Sin novedad en el frente fr:À l'Ouest, rien de nouveau ka:დასავლეთ ფრონტი უცვლელია ko:서부전선 이상없다 he:במערב אין כל חדש hu:Nyugaton a helyzet változatlan (film) no:Intet nytt fra vestfronten pl:Na Zachodzie bez zmian pt:A oeste nada de novo ru:На западном фронте без перемен simple:All Quiet on the Western Front sk:Na západe nič nového sv:På västfronten intet nytt zh:西線無戰事 ja:西部戦線異状なし
