All Quiet on the Western Front
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Key Facts
full title · All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen Nichts Neues)
author · Erich Maria Remarque
type of work · Novel
genres · War novel, historical fiction, novel of social protest
language · German
time and place written · Late 1920s, Berlin
date of first publication · 1928
publisher · A. G. Ullstein in Germany; Little, Brown in the United States
narrator · Paul Bäumer
point of view · Paul, the narrator, speaks primarily in the first person, often in the plural as he describes the collective experience of the soldiers immediately around him. He switches to the first person singular as he ruminates on his own thoughts and feelings about the war. The novel switches to the third person and an unnamed narrator for the two paragraphs following Paul’s death.
tone · Paul is Remarque’s mouthpiece in the novel, and Paul’s views can be considered those of Remarque.
tense · Present; occasionally past during flashbacks. The unnamed narrator at the end of the novel uses the past tense.
settings (time) · Late in World War I: 1917–1918
settings (place) · The German/French front
protagonist · Paul
major conflict · Paul and his friends have unwittingly entered a hellish war in which hope for survival is sullied by the knowledge that they have already been mentally scarred beyond recovery.
rising action · The wiring fatigue and the subsequent shelling in Chapter Four bring the men and the reader to the front for the first time in the story.
climax · Paul’s killing of Gérard Duval in Chapter Nine is his first encounter with hand-to-hand combat and, in a sense, with the reality of war.
falling action · Paul’s remorse at killing Duval solidifies the novel’s total rejection of the war and nationalist politics.
themes · The horror of war; the effect of war on the soldier; nationalism and political power
motifs · The pressure of patriotic idealism; carnage and gore; animal instinct
symbols · Kemmerich’s boots, which symbolize the cheapness of human life in the war
foreshadowing · There is little foreshadowing in the novel; the relentless carnage of the first ten chapters may foreshadow the death of Paul’s group in Chapters 11 and 12.
Kemmerich's Corkscrew Nails
by OverlyDramatic, August 14, 2012
Early in the book, before Kemmerich's death, Paul pictures the man's nails and growing after his death, into long spirals and corkscrews. While this is a powerful visual, it is not true. A corpse's skin shrinks away from its nails and hair after death, giving the appearance of increased length. Sorry if I grossed you out, but that was on my test and I thought you should know just in case.
42 out of 59 people found this helpful
0If you are here from COACH RICE'S class *READ*
by UltimateJBFan98, March 31, 2013
Okay. Here is my advice to you. Read all through SparkNotes as you read through the book. I was soo confused til I looked on SparkNotes. But of course I looked over Spring Break right before the final test! It is a good book when you understand it TRUST ME! Yah -Sydney
8 out of 23 people found this helpful
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