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A Summary |
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A Summary |
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"All Quiet on the Western Front" was written in a first
person style. The story was told by Paul Baümer,
a nineteen year old student, convinced to enlist with the German army by his schoolmaster,
Kantorek. Along with many of his friends from
school, he is trained under Corporal Himmelstoss,
a strictly disciplined commander who dislikes Paul because of his "defiance."
When sent to the front, Paul, along with his other friends, made new
friendships that would last throughout time. His newly made friend/commander, was a
man named Stanislaus Katczinsky. As a man of
forty years of age he was an wise old man as well as a friend to the young eighteen and
nineteen year old recruits.
After visiting the front for long stretches Paul is given fourteen days
of leave 
where he can
visit his ill mother at his own home. After this leave he is sent back to training
and then back to the front. His trip is lengthened when he discovers that his unit
has been reassigned to another area. Finding his unit, he reunites with his friends
and joins up with them again in the war efforts.
While searching in "no man's land," Paul is
confined to a shell hole for a long night. During this night a French soldier falls
in the hole and Paul stabs him. The hours to come are very hard for Paul as he
comforts and waits for the Frenchman to die.
Paul's group has a stroke of luck when they were assigned to defend a
village. Since no inhabitants were left they were able to go through the houses to
take and use whatever they wanted. This luck, however, did not last forever.
One day the French came and began shelling the village. While evacuating Paul and
his friend
Albert
Kropp were injured by gunshot wounds. They were bandaged up and sent on a train
back home.
This ride home took a turn. When Kropp got a fever he was
scheduled to be dropped off at the next stop. In order for Paul to stay with his
friend, he had to convince the nurse that he also was sick from infection. After
being dropped off they were taken to a Catholic hospital to be treated. After a few
weeks Kropp's leg is overcome with infection and is amputated at the thigh. After a
few more weeks Paul and Kropp parted, Paul going back to the war and Kropp going home.
Returning to the front was hard for Paul. The days were getting
cold and one by one he watched his friends die. The hardest loss was that of Kat.
After Kat had been shot, Paul had to carry Kat to the nearest dressing station a
few miles away. Stopping every few minutes to rest, Paul frequently checked to make
sure that Kat, even with his injury, was ok. When at last Paul reached the dressing
station the nurse told him that Kat was dead. When Paul checked again a small shell
fragment had just penetrated that back of Kat's head. He was still even warm.
Kat was the last of Paul's friends to die in the war. Then, in October of 1918, Paul
finally fell. The book describes his death as, "...his face had an expression
of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." The war ended the next month.
