All Quiet on the Western Front

Writing Prompts

Using PIE structure fully answer two of these questions below.

1. Characterize the relationship piece that develops between the soldiers in the trench.
Provide at least 2 examples of the movie that describe this relationship.

2. Examine the relationship between health care at the front lines with health care away
from the front lines. Hint: describe the treatment of Kimerich vs. the treatment of Paul
and Albert. Examine reasons the treatment may have been different.

3. Discuss and give examples from the movie how war effected the lives of ordinary
people. Provide at least 3 examples.

4. Compare and contrast the perception of the war on the homefront compared with
reality of the war on the front lines. Hint: the beer hall with Paul and his father’s friends
and his teacher.

5. Identify the struggles soldiers in the trench endured. From the movie provide examples
of at least four of these struggles.

6. Gives 3 examples of nationalism and militarism as seen in the movie.

7. Discuss how Paul’s inter monologue changes over time as evidenced in the movie.

8. Explain the effects Paul’s leave time has on him.

1. Prompt 8 --- Paul earns leave to visit his family after countless months on the
front lines. On his way home, he has an uneasy feeling. His war experiences have
changed him emotionally and psychologically. People treat him particularly well
when he encounters them on his way home because of his uniform. Paul dislikes
it because he feels they are only doing it. After all, the German government labels
the soldiers of more importance. Paul claims that associating with him makes
people feel better about themselves. They gain the honor of being associated with
a person from the military without going to war. He's particularly irritated when
someone refers to him as a "comrade," as though they share a bond. Paul is very
close with the men he battles along with on the front lines, and he values
comradeship greatly. These events make Paul nervous when he returns home
because he notices a strong emotional split between himself and the people back
home who are unaware of the war's violence and death.

2. Prompt 6 --- Paul reflects on how his gung-ho nationalist values began to crumble
as he became more immersed in actual war. Those who pushed him to join the
army said that fighting for your country is a noble cause, and they pretended to
respect the soldiers. However, Paul finds that the very nature of war is
disrespectful to soldiers because it requires them to debase themselves
completely. He feels that he and his comrades are not gloried defenders of their
birthplace but rather slaves to the political whims of their superiors. Paul laments
that the media in his home country offers the public a sanitized, upbeat version of
the war. The news portrays the soldiers as jolly heroes on a grand adventure,
fighting in the trenches and then reveling in the camps afterward in an attempt to
stoke nationalist pride and widespread trust in the war effort. The government of
Germany showed only the humane parts of the military to draw younger kids into
it when in retrospect, the military was a living hell for most of the soldiers due to
the poor conditions of the front lines, the trenches, and even the training camps.
The German military and government pushed for a grander military, while the
lower-ranking men knew bringing in young, inexperienced kids.