fbpx

All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque)

Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic

1. What is the genre?

Global—War > Anti-War

Secondary—Worldview > Disillusionment

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

One central character with offshoot characters who embody a multitude of that character’s personality traits: The main character, Paul Baümer, is the narrator of the story.  He displays an evenness, courage, intellectual sophistication, compassion and humor.

  • Albert Kropp is one of Paul’s classmates and when faced with his own desperation and suicide wish, he mirrors Paul’s inner strength and concern for how his death would impact his fellow comrades.
  • Friedrich Müller, another classmate, shares Paul’s love for intellectual engagement.
  • “Kat” Katzinsky – is mentor to Paul who exhibits the same leadership qualities with the company that Paul does among his schoolmates
  • Tjaden – Shares Paul’s hatred for authority, in the person of Himmelstoss.
  • Detering – A simple farmer who shares Paul’s love of home and family.

Big Canvas. Either a widescope external setting or the internal landscape: The story takes place on World War I battlefields across Europe’s war-torn villages. Trench warfare, gunfire, grenade blasts, and exploding shells depict the horrors of war at the front. Away from the front, food is scarce but untouched fields of flowers offer natural solace to the soldiers.

Overwhelming odds…the protagonists are substantially outnumbered: There are many references throughout the story to the strength of the enemy and the weakness of the Germans, but the one that epitomizes the direness of the situation is when Paul’s company ranks have dropped from 150 to 32 men.

A clear “point of no return” moment, when the combatants accept the inevitability of death: Paul, realizing he is the last of his classmates and comrades to survive, realizes that nothing more can be taken from him because there is nothing left to take.

The sacrifice for brotherhood moment. One protagonist sacrifices himself for the good of his fellow soldiers: Company Commander Bertinck crawls out of the hole and attempts to shoot the enemy when he sees that the men are not in a position to attack without getting hit. Despite getting shot, he continues to fire until he takes the attacker out, but dies as a result of this courageous action.

Obligatory Scenes

Inciting Attack (I think there are two that act together, but on different scales): Himmelstoss’s continuous mistreatment of the recruits reaches its breaking point when Paul is made to repeat the drop and advance drill on the muddy field. The recruits experience cognitive dissonance, as their leader’s mistreatment is not consistent with the honorable soldier experience they are told to expect. The second is when the group first experiences the horrors of trench warfare during a bombardment. Baümer and his company realize they have been sold a bill of goods on a larger scale by their teachers, parents, and German authorities, none of whom prepared them with practical training nor other sustaining resources (e.g. food). Behm’s death is the first sign post on the path of disillusionment that Paul travels through the rest of the story. He says as much with this statement: “The first bombardment showed us our mistake and the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.”

Protagonists deny responsibility to respond: Paul and his comrades lament the poor treatment they receive at the hands of Himmelstoss.

Forced to respond, protagonists lash out according to their positions on the power hierarchy: Paul and his comrades taunt Himmelstoss’s by intentionally responding to his drill instructions to drop and advance very slowly. Later, they intentionally drop buckets of urine on him. The final act of defiance occurs when the group ambushes a drunk Himmelstoss.

Each character learns what their antagonist’s object of desire is: The men discuss how wars start. One country offends another, but how does a mountain in France offend a mountain in Germany? The group decides the rulers who start wars do so to advance their own fame.  Albert says it’s “like a fever.”

Protagonists’s initial strategy to outmaneuver antagonist fails: Paul considers that the older generation can no longer be trusted (and that “our generation is more to be trusted than theirs”).

Protagonists, realizing they must change their approach to attain a measure of victory, undergo an All Is Lost moment: Paul returns home on leave and realizes that he will never be the person he once was, nor fulfill the potential of his youth. He regrets ever coming home at all and understands that his real “home” is with his comrades.

The Big Battle Scene: the core event of the War story and what the reader is waiting for. This is the moment when the progtagonist’s gifts are expressed or destroyed: Paul’s gift is to understand that all soldiers are alike—they are pawns of the rulers who start the war. While the story includes many battles, the scene that meets the “big battle” obligation is when Paul attacks the French soldier in the trench, and battles internally his shame and disgrace for harming another man who is just like him. The Frenchman’s slow death and staring eyes assault Paul and stir his guilt, which inspires Paul to exercise his gift of compassion, offering water and intentions to help the family of the man he now refers to as Gerard Duval, the printer.

The protagonists are rewarded with at least one level of satisfaction (extrapersonal, interpersonal or intrapersonal) for their sacrifice: When Paul volunteers for sentry duty after he returns from leave, he is afraid, alone and lost until he hears the voices of his comrades, which is evidence of “the finest thing that arose out of the war – comradeship.” Paul states upon hearing their voices, “They are more to me than life, these voices, they are more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades.”

Learn more about obligatory scenes and conventions.

3. What is the point of view?

Story events are relayed through first person accounts by main character Paul Baümer until the final two paragraphs, which use third person omniscient to report Paul’s death to the reader.

Learn more about point of view.

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious: Paul’s conscious want is for the war to end and for all of his comrades to return home.

Internal/Subconscious: His subconscious need is for the older generation – those in power – to respect and recognize the sacrifices the younger generation is making and the life potential that they have destroyed.

Learn more about objects of desire.

5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

World War I lacks meaning for a group of young German soldiers when they realize powerful leaders who start wars to promote their own potential destroy the lives and potential of the vulnerable youth who must fight them.

Learn more about controlling ideas.

6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook – After Paul and his friends join the war effort at the urging of their elders, they are surprised to learn that this generation does not have the soldiers’ best interest in mind, and must trust only each other or face certain death. They decide to continue the fight but only to protect each other.

Middle Build – After intense exposure to the horrors of trench warfare and the deaths of his comrades, Paul goes on leave and is faced with trying to fake his support for the war or exercise his true feelings and dissent. He decides to shirk his soldier’s identity and realizes that neither he nor his home will ever be the same again.

Ending Payoff – After Paul mortally wounds a French soldier, he is faced with considering him as the enemy or a man just like himself, tricked into fighting a war he did not start. He chooses to treat him with compassion and realizes that comradeship is the only redeeming outcome of war, and when that is gone, there is nothing else to live for.

Download the Story Grid Global Foolscap

Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic


Share this Article:

🟢 Twitter🔵 Facebook🔴 Pinterest

GET 100% OFF A STORY GRID BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE
GET 100% OFF A STORY GRID BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE

Sign up below and we'll immediately send you a coupon code to get any Story Grid title - print, ebook or audiobook - for free.

(Browse all the Story Grid titles)

 

Sheila Lischwe