How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that there was only one way of doing well, and that way theirs. And that is just why they let us down so badly. (1.47)
Clothes do not make the man. Most of the authority figures in the novel are painted as one form or another of idiots, sycophants, toadies, and other lower order life forms. Kantorek and Himmelstoss are core figureheads in this arena. But they represent the many others who assume their form. This type of representation is one of the things that makes All Quiet on the Western Front such a great book – it is clearly everyman's story of the war. Think about it: there is nothing particularly special about Paul, other than that he wrote this book. His story is presumably played out thousands of times, just as the passively evil Kantorek and Himmelstoss's stories are repeated many times, in many locales, all around the war effort.
Quote #2
We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers – we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals. (2.27)
Many quotes like this pepper the book. There is a conversion that happens when the danger, or kill-zone, line is crossed. Paul sheds his soft, gentle, listening self and adopts a killing, shouting, aggressive demeanor which he continually links to that of a hungry or wounded animal. His identity thus goes back and forth between these two faces.
Quote #3
I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of course that have changed in the interval. There lies a gulf between that time and to-day. At that time I still knew nothing about the war, we had only been in quiet sectors. But now I see that I have been crushed without knowing it. I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world. (7.173)
In what ways has Paul been crushed? In light of all of the gruesome circumstances he's had to weather, Paul seems like one tough cookie to us. Then again, we don't really get to meet him until he's already elbow deep in wartime responsibilities. We don't know what Paul was like before the war.
Quote #4
A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me. I cannot find my way back, I am shut out though I entreat earnestly and put forth all my strength.
Nothing stirs; listless and wretched, like a condemned man, I sit there and the past withdraws itself. And at the same time I fear to importune it too much, because I do not know what might happen then. I am a soldier, I must cling to that. (7.188)
Is it that the past withdraws itself from Paul or is it that Paul is withdrawing from the past? We get the sense that Paul feels full of guilt at this moment – why does he liken himself to a "condemned man?" The soldierly identity that he must cling to seems quite general when compared with the vivid world of his childhood room.
Quote #5
When we went to the District Commandant to enlist, we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks. We had no definite plans for our future. Our thoughts for a career and occupation were as yet of too unpractical a character to furnish any scheme of life. We were still crammed with vague ideas which gave to life, and to the war also, an ideal and almost romantic character. (2.4)
Are there any moments in this novel in which war has "an ideal and almost romantic character"?
Quote #6
With our young, awakened eyes we saw that the classical conception of the Fatherland held by our teachers resolved itself here into a renunciation of personality such as one would not ask of the meanest servant. (2.5)
Some feel that the characters in All Quiet on the Western Front lack depth. Do you agree? Perhaps the characters seem flat because Remarque wants to show us just what it means for a soldier to give up his "personality." When do we really get to know characters in this novel?
Quote #7
We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke into pieces. (1.63)
What does it mean to trust one generation more than another? Did the older generation lie to Paul and his peers? Who in this book belongs to the "older generation"?
Quote #8
I collect the things, untie Kemmerich's identification disc and take it away. The orderly asks about the pay-book. I say that it is probably in the Orderly room, and go. Behind me they are already hauling Franz onto the waterproof sheet. (2.57)
Paul's tone here is dismal, but journalistic. He reports on what he sees, but he doesn't tell us how he feels about what he is seeing. At first he refers to Kemmerich by his last name, and, a few sentences later, he refers to Kemmerich by his first name. Why do you suppose he does this?
Quote #9
That evening's work made us more or less content to leave next morning. And an old buffer was pleased to describe us as "young heroes." (3.82)
What the heck is a "buffer"? To whom or what is Paul referring? Do you consider him and his friends to be "young heroes" for having kicked Himmelstoss's butt?
Quote #10
Perhaps it is our inner and most secret life that shivers and falls on guard. (4.21)
Even though Kat only supposes that there will soon be a bombardment, the soldiers are unnerved. What is this "inner and most secret life" to which Paul refers? Perhaps he is simply referring to the men's collected fears.