CHAPTER 1

Summary

This story is narrated by Paul B'umer and concerns his experiences and those of the other members of his company of soldiers fighting on the Western Front during the First World War.  After two weeks of continual fighting, Paul’s company of 150 men has been reduced to 80.

Paul had volunteered for military service along with his classmates, Leer, Muller and Kropp all of whom are 19 years old.  Other notable members of Paul’s immediate circle of soldiers are Tjaden who was formerly a locksmith, Haie who used to be a peat digger, and Deterring a peasant farmer who often thinks of his wife and family at home. The unofficial leader of their group is Katczinsky (Kat for short). He is 40 years old and has survived so far due to his cunning.

Paul describes the scene where they line up for breakfast and the cook has mistakenly prepared rations for 150 men, but only 80 have survived to eat this meal.  Those present quickly claim the rations in place of their fallen comrades, but the cook insists that he has been given orders only to distribute single rations. A heated argument follows and the cook finally relents to distribute all the food.  The men rest after their breakfast and relax playing cards and having a well-earned smoke.

Paul wonders how another classmate; Kemmerich is doing after he had received a thigh wound.  Some of the men visit him in the hospital and he is a poor state, close to death. He has had his leg amputated because the wound became infected and he developed gangrene. Muller quickly realizes that Kemmerich will no longer require his fine boots, and puts a claim in for them. He might as well benefit from them because the orderlies will steal them for themselves.  Paul remains by Kemmerich’s bedside until he dies and then takes the boots for Muller.

Paul recalls his schooldays and how his teacher Kantorek had encouraged his pupils to enlist for the Front.  He told them it was their duty to fight and protect the Fatherland.

One of the students, Joseph Behm was reluctant to enlist, but Kantorek’s persistence eventually persuaded Joseph to enlist. He was one of the first of Paul’s school mates to die, and his death was particularly horrible. This incident was the turning point for Paul and his classmates, who lost their boyhood and no longer respected those in authority such as Kantorek.

Interpretation

Remarque takes us straight to the horrors of World War I with little warning or preparation.

This book broke the mould concerning war novels. Up until this time such pieces of literature concentrated on the glory and heroism of war. There was almost a romantic tone to these testimonies of warfare.  Remarque emphasizes the terror and dehumanizing effect that the trench warfare had on the soldiers.

Paul and his fellow students soon lose their youthfulness. They are aged beyond their years and they have lost their idealism in the mud and gore of the Front Line.  Paul and the rest were sucked into believing the propaganda spouted by their teacher, and were quite keen to enlist as volunteers in order to prove their patriotism. Even Joseph Behm, who was not keen to enlist, was swept along on the tide of hysteria. He is one of the first of the boys from the school to die. We learn that he is ‘a tubby, cheerful chap’.  He meets his death as follows, “He was shot in the eye during an attack, and we left him for dead.  We couldn’t take him with us because we had to get back in a great rush ourselves.  That afternoon we suddenly heard him shout out and saw him crawling around in no man’s land.  He had only been knocked unconscious. Because he couldn’t see and was mad with pain he didn’t take cover, so he was shot down from the other side before anyone could get out fetching him.” 

Of course the horrors are not confined to the battlefield and there are also grisly sights in the Field Hospital. Kemmerich had suffered a fairly minor wound to his thigh, but this had become infected and his leg had to be amputated.  Paul is concerned about his comrade because he looks ghastly, but the doctor refuses to come and see to him.  He has already amputated five legs today and cannot face any more.

In every direction that Paul turns there are the horrors of war. He stays with Kemmerich to the end and then flees the hospital and we read, “Once I get outside, the darkness and the wind are a salvation.  I breathe as deeply as I can, and feel the air warmer and softer than every before in my face.  Images of girls, fields of flowers, of white clouds all pass rapidly through my mind. My feet move onwards in my boots, I am going faster, I am running '' The whole earth is suffused with power and its streaming into me, up through the souls of my feet.  The night crackles with electricity; there is a dull thundering from the Front Line, like some concerto for kettledrums.”  Momentarily Paul escapes the horrors, but the incessant booming of the guns brings him back to reality.

Paul has taken Kemmerich’s boots for Muller. Again we learn how poorly the soldiers are provided for in both food and equipment.  Many of those who lived in the trenches suffered from trench foot. This was a degenerative disease of the feet caused by prolonged immersion in cold water.  We will learn that the boots outlive many owners during this story.

We soon appreciate that our small band of heroes are not just fighting the Allied Forces, but are fighting against the conditions they have to endure.  The men are merely cogs and wheels of a gigantic war machine that stretches for hundreds of miles. The machine uses up these cogs and wheels at a fantastic rate, but nobody has the wit to switch the machine off.  Only when both sides have run out of materials will the machine be starved and grind to a halt.

One cannot underestimate the power of propaganda in this conflict. Not only does the school master urge his students to enlist, but they are also under the same pressure from all members of society. They are urged to protect the Fatherland because right is on their side and the war will soon be over. The same situation prevails with the Allies. In England all able-bodied men were encouraged to enlist.  It was a time when there was unquestionable loyalty to the state. Even after World War I there were still many who thought that war was an honorable campaign.

It was through books such as this that the realities of modern warfare were brought home to the next generation. The book’s authenticity is underlined by the fact that Remarque actually experienced first hand the horrors of war.  Remarque also emphasizes the desensitization of the soldiers.  They are not concerned about the number of their dead comrades, only what is to happen to their food rations. Although we can read about the life endured in the trenches, one has to experience it first hand to truly appreciate it, but we note that Paul and his comrades are all equally changed by these experiences as is evident in their callous attitude regarding the dead men’s rations, and who will be the next owner of Kemmerich’s boots.

Paul describes the episode concerning the mail received by the soldiers and there is one from Kantorek who calls his students ‘the iron youth’.  Kantorek views them as being young and strong, but they are aged beyond their years and tremble in the trenches when they are under artillery fire.

It is important that the reader should try and identify himself with Paul as the story unfolds. It is a key element for fully appreciating the novel because the main message that Remarque is trying to make is carried through the book by Paul.  Paul and his comrades are now trapped in this hell. Their only escape is through death or injury. They feel that those who urged them to enlist have betrayed them, have sent them to be slaughtered, all in the guise of patriotism, which they now view as an empty vessel.

We witness their moral degeneration, the loss the values they held so dear when back at home. This moral decay is shared by all at the Front Line. We note that the patients in the Field Hospital lose their valued possessions, which are stolen by the orderlies - for example Kemmerich’s watch disappears.  It was noted that in the years after the First World War there was a general decline in moral standards throughout society.