Chapter 1-2 Big Idea All Quiet On The Western Front

Chapter 1-2 Big Idea All Quiet On The Western Front

            The first chapter of this book is very straight forward. Besides introducing the situation and the characters in the story, there is a to the point theme of lost values. The men of this German army have nothing, at least in our eyes. They have nothing so therefore they make the simple things we take for granted their favorite things such as the latrine time. They have forgotten their previous joys in life if they had any to begin with. They young boys that are apart of Paul’s group have very little to come home to. They are at a time in their lives where they are going through priority changes. The war is just interrupting this time. They aren’t as attached to their parents and they are not married and don’t have children. They have no real careers to be worried about. The army has been their life, ever sense Kantorek persuaded them to enlist using pure patriotic enthusiasm.

            The soldiers no longer care for what the average person cares for. Half of their comrades have fallen. All the men can think about is how they have double rations because of the dead soldiers and the miscalculation their absence caused. The rest of the book continues this theme of missing values. The soldiers sometimes will steal and bribe to get what they want. The army is supposedly unified but it is not really. The unification is not true because of the loss of values. They no longer care for each other as they should. Paul is the only one who seems to still have retained his pre-war respect. He cares for others and notices the very real sadness around him. I believe as the book goes on he becomes less and less aware of the morbid situation all of them are in.