Introduction

After attending both Hebrew School and middle school, I have learned a great amount of information pertaining to World War II and the Holocaust in particular. In fact, during my eighth grade year we studied World War II simultaneously in both my language arts and Hebrew School classes. World War I and the effects it had on Germany in the years following its defeat have often been cited by my teachers as one of the main causes of the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Oddly enough, my teachers largely skipped over the details of the first world war. I have since been interested in how World War I could have had such devastating consequences for the world, both directly and indirectly.

My interest in this topic led me to choose All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Remarque, as my independent reading novel. I understand that this book details the life of a German soldier named Paul Bäumer during World War I. After researching World War I, I found that the Western Front which the title refers to is actually a battle line along which a large portion of the fighting took place. The front was located in Belgium and northeastern France, and the fighting along the battle line lasted from 1914 to 1918. Therefore, I predict that the book will most likely take place along the Western Front some time during the four years the fighting occurred.

Neither the Allies, which consisted of the U.S. and other various countries, nor the Central Powers, which consisted of the German Empire along with three other empires, made any significant advances along the Western Front throughout World War I. Due to the fact that many of the notable battles of the war took place along this battle line, many new military technologies were introduced at the Western Front. Both sides suffered many casualties because of recently developed weapons, such as poison gas, aircraft, and tanks. The enormous amount of casualties and the presence of these new technologies would have made life along the Western Front incredibly harsh. This book describes the battle front through the eyes of Bäumer, and I predict that much of the text will be devoted to discussing the traumatizing effects the Western Front has on the young man's life.

From reading the back cover, I notice that Paul fights alongside some of his German classmates during the war, and I believe that these soldiers may possibly be characters in the novel. Also, it seems as if Paul driven by the conviction that the terror he experiences along the Western Front should never exist in the world again. I feel as if this book will be based on revealing why Paul Bäumer is so strongly opposed to war in general, and that the author will accomplish this through depicting scenes from the front lines.

Reading Schedule:

1.) Pgs. 1-74

2.) Pgs. 75-136

3.) Pgs. 137-198

4.) Pgs. 199-295