Paul Baumer
� Narrator
� 19 when he enlists
� loses youthful idealism in training camp
Stanislaus Katcinzky (Kat)
� Paul�s best friend
� 40 years old
� cobbler in civilian life
� shrewd and resourceful (finds food)
Albert Kropp
� clearest thinker among Paul�s classmates
Tjaden
� locksmith in civilian life
� skinny despite his voracious appetite
Haie Westhus
� Peat digger in civilian life
� Prefers peacetime army to digging peat
Detering
� Simple peace � loving farmer
� Loner
Muller
� Paul�s classmate who still carries text books and dreams of exams
Leer
� Paul�s classmate
� Has beard
� Obsessed with mathematics and women
Kemmerich
� Grows up with Paul
� Dies after leg amputation
� Leaves his boots to Muller
Himmelstoss
� Postman in civilian life
� Sadistic as a drillmaster �Terror of Klosterberg�
Kantorek
� Stern �little� man
� Persuades Paul and classmates to join the army
� Warfare is legitimate expression of Patriotism
Setting
German Front (1914-1918)
Point of View
1st person P.O.V. (Paul�s eyes: individual & immediate)
Themes
The Destructiveness of War
The Lost Generation
Camaraderie
Shared Humanity
The Corrupting Effect of Power
P. 1-2: We are at rest�came back only eighty strong. (Analyze POV and Irony)
POV � 1st person POV. Paul Baumer is the narrator. Character as narrator limits what we (the reader) know and makes everything immediately.
Irony: 150 men go to the front line � lst day, take huge English artillery � come back with 80.
P. 10-12: Kantorek had been our schoolmaster�And that is why they let us down so badly. �Characterization Kantorek and Katczinsky
Kantorek � an ignorant man, who was Paul�s schoolmaster in high school, put pressure on Paul and his classmates to join the army.
Katczinsky � is a soldier in Paul�s company. He is known by the name Kat, and even though he is around 40 years old he is Paul�s best friend. He is also very resourceful.
P. 12-13: For us lads of eighteen�and we must see it through. �Analyze Theme: The Lost Generation
This passage reinforces the theme of the Lost Generation by showing how these soldiers seemed to have passed by the simple life that they never have lived their lives. The war has changed them, and basically made it so that their lives will never be normal.
P.19-20: It is strange to think that at home�All the same, we are not sad. Characterization Paul, Theme: The Lost Generation
Paul explains how he has nothing to look forward to outside the war. Only his parents and maybe a girl. He goes on to say that there is little less he cares for. He explains how �war has swept them away� this also reinforces the theme of �The Lost generation�
P. 22: By threes and fours�by being strict with the recruits. Characterization: Himmelstoss, Theme: Corrupting Effect of Power, Shared Humanity
Large ego, small man, senses a �quiet defiance� among Paul and his classmates. Sadistic and continuously punishes recruits. Represents the older generation that do not understand what they are sending children off to do.
P. 28-29: He is not the first�Let him not die! Characterization: Kemmerich, Theme: The Destructiveness of War.
Kemmerich is only a child of 18 and does not deserve the gruesome death that he has to suffer. Used to wear a brown coat with a belt and shiny sleeves, could do the giant�s turn on the horizontal bar, couldn�t stand cigarettes, skin was very white. The orderlies steal his belongings while he is ill, a symbol of how the older generation is stealing something from the younger one.
P. 55: To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool�we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals. Symbolism and Foreshadowing.
Either you bury yourself in the earth for protection or it buries you. It gives life to those who hide in it and it is the final resting place for some.
P. 56-59: An indigent looking wood receives us�he hesitates is blinded, and falls. Atmosphere, Irony, Foreshadowing.
The planes are used as a metaphor, they are called ______. The men admire the rockets and the fireworks, but they are really being used against them to show where they are.
P. 62-64: He goes off�I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war. Symbolism, Foreshadowing, and Irony.
The horses were not evolved in the war. It became archaic after WWI.
Characterization: Detering Kat
Discouraging Kat
Many of the soldiers were deterring Kat by mocking him while he was trying to do his job. The soldiers are not used to him being a leader instead of a friend of theirs. They must learn to treat him with respect because even though he is a comrade, he is their leader in this time of war.
Pg. 75: Killing each separate louse�Crack! And they�re done for. Irony.
This quote, or part of the story is ironic because when they kill each louse so easily, its like the men being killed in the war.
Pg. 86-88: But what will really happen when we go back? � We believe in such things no longer we believe in war. Destructiveness of War, the Lost Generation.
This part of the story is again explaining how Paul, and the younger men in the war, is now of nothing else in life, but the war and the destructiveness of the war. The lost generation no longer remembers the good things in life, just the horrors of it.
Pg. 99-100: There are rumors of an offensive�to-night two of our men are wounded by them. Irony, Foreshadowing.
During this part, its foreshadowing it that they leave two days earlier and they�re going to a school-house. The irony in this paragraph is that their weapons, (shells) are so unbelievable horrible that they sometimes land within their own lines, and hit their own men.
Pg. 103-104: During the day we loaf about� and what�s more the blade often gets broken off. Irony, Understatement (Litote)
War at this time was all about fighting for about 2 weeks continuously and 2 weeks of nothing. Soldiers would find themselves going on and off in points of insanity while brothers around them dying at least once a week. It was a traumatic time of boredom and survival.
Pg. 108-114: The night is unbearable�they did not count on so much resistance. Atmosphere, irony.