All Quiet on the Western Front

Name ____________
by Erich Maria Remarque Date ________ Hour ________

Pre-reading Discussion: Issues of War

1. In your opinion, who is responsible for the deaths in a war?

2. Do you think a book can make war real to people who have never experienced it?

STATEMENT AGREE OR REASONING

DISAGREE
Wars are
exciting.

If the president
declared war on
another country,
I would not
question it.
Those who dont
like war are
weak.

Enemy soldiers
deserve to die in
war.

Its impossible to
know what war
is like without
being in one.
 All Quiet on the Western Front

About the Author

During his first decade after the war, Erich Maria Remarque worked odd jobs and could not
seem to settle into anything. Concealing postwar trauma beneath public shows of wit and
elitism, Remarque began confronting wartime torments, which he had incubated for a decade
in his thoughts and dreams.

Within five weeks, Remarque, keeping alert on strong coffee and cigars, composed Im Westen
nichts Neues (literally, In the West Nothing New), which was serialized in the magazine
Vossische Zeitung from November 10 to December 9, 1928, then appeared in novel form the
next year in English as All Quiet on the Western Front. Although publishers were skeptical that
the postwar reader was still interested in World War I, Remarque's pacifist bestseller sold a
million and a half copies that same year and in time was translated into twenty-nine
languages.

His countrymen, who bought most of the first printing, raised a confusing barrage of
enthusiasm and criticism, stating that Remarque simultaneously dramatized pacifism by
overstating wartime dangers, enriched himself by glamorizing the German battlefield, and
promoted communism. The German Officers League, on hearing talk of a Nobel Prize
nomination for Remarque, challenged the Swedish committee's wisdom in considering the
proposal. The strongest voices against Remarque belonged to the National Socialist party (AKA
the Nazi Party), an ultranationalist group, who accused him of deliberately creating an
antihero to denigrate war and of degrading Germany by victimizing manufacturers and
medical staff as incompetent and opportunistic.

Refusing his critics the satisfaction of verbal confrontation, Remarque rejected interviews,
labeling his work nonpolitical so as to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. However,
Remarque had touched a nerve, and the themes and ideas of this first best-seller would echo
through his writing for the rest of his life.
 Conceptual Vocabulary for All Quiet on the Western Front

humanity
Ones human-ness. War destroyed the humanity of an entire generation.

Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________

the Lost The young men who came of Paul was a member of the lost generation.
Generation age during WWI came to be
called the lost generation.
Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________
 To make something appear glamorous or appealing. Remarques book deglamorized war.

glamorization

Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the
word correctly.

__________________________________
__________________________________

Visually descriptive language. Good imagery forces your mind to see something.
imagery
Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________

A shared sense of a close bond,

often created when a group goes Paul and his friends experience strong camaraderie because
camaraderie through intense hardship.
of their shared experiences in WWI.

Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________
 Originating or occurring naturally
in a particular place; native The indigenous peoples of modern-day Nigeria were
irony
diverse, belonging to many linguistic groups.

Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

Red flannel is indigenous to Cedar Springs; zebra mussels are

not indigenous to the Great Lakes.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________

Emperor of Germany and king of

Prussia (1888-1918); his ambitions Paul was not the Kaisers biggest fan by the time he had been
the Kaiser led Germany into a fruitless and
costly war. in the war for a bit.

Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Crisis of After WWI, Europeans could
no longer say they were the Paul is a microcosm of the crisis of meaning that so many
meaning smartest and most advanced experienced.
culture in the worldafter
all, Europe nearly committed
suicide in WWI.
Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________

A tiny example of something much Mr. Stuart strives to make our classroom a microcosm of US
microcosm bigger. society.
Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

__________________________________________
__________________________________________

Lack of corruption; purity

Paul is said to lose his innocence when the killing begins.
innocence
Draw your own image and write a sentence below it, using the word correctly.

A eurocentric view of the world will see everything in terms

of European history being most important. E.g., __________________________________________
Eurocentrists might view tribal Africa as primitive and __________________________________________
uncivilized.
__________________________________________
 Personal Narrative
Connecting to Pauls World

DIRECTIONS: Choose one of the prompts below and construct a 200+ word personal response. Focus
strongly on word choice / diction. Diction is the art of choosing the perfect word to fit in a given sentence.
Great poets or writers are always striving for the perfect word to express a feeling or concept.

1. Discuss a time when you felt pressured to do something that others thought was right but that you
didnt think was right. In other words, can you think of a time when your teachers or parents were pressuring
you to do something that you saw no point in doing? Describe the incident in detail. How did this situation
make you feel? How did it impact others? What did you learn from the incident?
OR

2. Discuss a time when you lost some of your innocence. In other words, can you think of a time when you
suddenly realized that something or someone you thought was simply good actually turned out to be not so
good? Describe the incident in detail. How did this situation make you feel? How did it impact others? What
did you learn from the incident?
OR

3. Discuss a time when you felt intense feelings of fear. In other words, can you think of a time when you
were utterly terrified? How did you deal with that fear? Describe the incident in detail. How did this situation
make you feel? How did it impact others? What did you learn from the incident?

Grading Rubric
Format /
Ideas and Content Organization Diction and Voice Readability

4 Author consistently reveals the 2 3 Strong, compelling, varied 1 The response is at

significance of the events through
engaging details, compelling language,
and a balance of action, thoughts, and
perhaps even dialogue. The writing
definitely shows rather than tells.
3 Author reveals the significance of the
events through several details, good
word choice, and a balance of action,
thoughts, and dialogue The writer
generally shows events rather than
telling about them.
The writers control over
organization and natural transitions
effectively moves the reader
smoothly through the text.
word choice least 200+ words in
length. It is legible.
The reader feels a strong
interaction with the writer, The writer has
sensing the person behind the obviously checked
words. The tone and voice are his/her work to make
individual, compelling and sure that errors do not
engaging and are appropriate for
interfere with
the purpose and audience. understanding.

2 Author sometimes reveals the
significance of the events through
details, compelling language, and a
balance of action, thoughts, and
dialogue The writer generally shows
events rather than telling about them.
0-1 Little to no effort is made to reveal
the significance of the events to the
reader. The writer tells about events
instead of showing them.
1 The presentation shows some
evidence of structure, but it may be
artificial or ineffective.
0 The presentation shows little
evidence of structure.
2 Adequate word choice
The reader sometimes feels
connected to the writer. The
voice is pleasant, or even
personable, but not compelling.
1 Word choice could be better.
The voice in the piece relies on
the reader's good faith to hear or
feel anything. The writing is
humdrum and "risk-free."
.5 The response is at
least 200+ words in
length. It is legible.
Some errors are
distracting to the
reader.
0 I can't read this.
Rewrite it if you want
a grade.

SCORE = ____ / 10