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Paul enlists in the war
He decided to enlist with his friends because of a teacher.
"Then you can look out from the window across the fields to the two trees on the horizon. It is the loveliest time of the year now, when the corn ripens; at evening the fields in the sunlight look like mother-of-pearl. And the lane of poplars by the Klosterbach, where we used to catch sticklebacks! You can build an aquarium again and keep fish in it, and you can go out without asking anyone, you can even play the piano if you want to." -
Training
Paul and his friends have all been in training for the past 4 months. Himmelstoff is their platoon corporal and none of his friends like him because they all think that he is a waste of their time and very useless.-"It's queer, when one thinks about it," goes on Kropp, "we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now who's in the right?" -
The Bloody Battle
The men fight in a bloody battle with allied infantry men. The men live in trenches and are forced to fight for food with the pesky rodents that surround them. Reinforcements are sent to the men however it seems they are more trouble than they are worth. Many of them die from gas attacks because they are unsure of how to react. In one trench, Paul runs into Himmelstoss. Paul tries to get Himmelstoss to leave the trench and help fight but Himmelstoss is too afraid. Paul now realizes that Himmelst -
A Soldier in Need
Paul and the others take shelter in a graveyard and throw bodies out of coffins and take their places to hide in them.They meet wounded soldiers along the way and help bandage where they can. knowing that he will suffer much before he dies.- "Naturally it's worse here. Naturally. The best for our soldiers every time, that goes without saying." -
The Battle of Somme
The battle lasted both day and night non stop all the way until November. On the first day of the battle 60,000 people died.-I look at the portraits once more; they are clearly not rich people. I might send them money anonymously if I earn anything later on. I seize upon that, it is at least something to hold onto. This dead man is bound up with my life, therefore I must do everything, promise everything in order to save myself. -
Paul revists Kemmerich in the hospital
Kemmerich is in the hosiptal and they amputated his leg. They don't have the heart to tell him that he lost his leg. He shortly dies a painful death.
"I breathe deeply and say over to myself: "You are at home; you are at home." But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I can find nothing of myself in all these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there is my case of butterflies, and there is the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us." -
Kemmerich Dies
Paul sadly watches Kemmerich die with hospital orderlies and doctors not really caring about enlisted men (not officers). The utilitarian Müller covets Kemmerich's boots – not out of greed but to help his chances for survival.Paul tries to comfort Kemmerich, but cannot. Kemmerich cries all the way into his death. Paul gives Müller the boots. -
Human Animals
Paul talks about having animal insticts helping them during the war."We reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals" -
Supplies
The Supply depot was destroyed so all the men do for about three weeks is Eat, drink, and smoke. "the town gradually vanishes under the shells and we lead a charmed life"- Paul -
Poet
Paul in all the silence starts saying poetic things like "We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost" -
Planes
Search lights are sweeping the sky. "one of them pauses, and quivers a little. Immediately a second is beside him, a black insect is caught between them and tries to escape – the airman. He hesitates, is blinded and falls" -
Suicide
The impact of war made the young recruits go insane and they become suicidal. They have to try and get help from their other brothers to keep them from doing it.-We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they might be ornamented enough in peace time, would be out of place here. -
Another Battle
In another battle, Albert and Paul are injured. They are sent to the hospital where Paul fights hard any need to be knocked out before the operation. He promises the surgeon that he will stop moving and the surgeon takes out shrapnel from Paul's leg with no anesthesia. -
Meeting A Wounded Soldier
They return home and, en route, they are again bombed heavily. This is a gas raid; Paul dons his mask.Paul and the others take shelter in a graveyard, throw bodies out of coffins, and take their places to hide in them.They meet wounded soldiers along the way and help bandage where they can. One badly injured man should be euthanized, but they can not get to him in time – medics carry him away with Paul and Kat knowing that he will suffer much before he dies. -
Returning to the Front
Paul and the troops go to the front to lay barbed wire fence. They are shelled actively along the way. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Russians signed the Armistice with Germany. The Russiand gave the Germans Poland, Ukraine, and other regions this stops alot of the Sicialist propaganda and payed 300 million roubles for prisoners.-He listens and for a moment his eye becomes clear. Then again he has the glowering eyes of a mad dog, he is silent, he shoves me aside. -
Worn Out Guns
The troop is in low spirts because there guns are beging to ware out in the last battle 2 of the mens guns hurt them selfs. "The Front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in suspense of uncertainty. Over us Chance hovers"-paul -
Describing Death
Paul describes the deaths of Detering, Bernger, Muller, and others. -
Kat Dies
Pail was killed by shrapnel in the head while he was being carried by Paul. Paul tries to save him and get him meds but by the time he gets him there he realized that Kat didnt make it.-Because he could not see, and was mad with pain, he failed to keep under cover, and so was shot down before anyone could go and fetch him. -
Paul's Death
After inhaling poison gas, Paul is given fourteen days of leave to recuperate. He finally dies after years of fighting and dies on a very peacful day in October 1918.-The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and intestines. Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they give an intimate flavor to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest indignation.
