All Quiet on the Western Front Discussion

To start the discussion of All Quiet on the Western Front, Kemmerich was brought up and how he overuses his power in the military, because he has no power back home in his job as a postman. Then we each wrote a short summary of the book. My summary talked about how in the beginning of the book the men have been decreased from 150 to 80. Then one of the men dies from having his leg amputated and his boots are given to Mueller who had previously asked for them. As the book goes on new recruits come in that are younger than the original men, and have had little training. When the fighting starts up again, the young men start dropping like flies, and once again new recruits must be brought in. These ones are even younger than the previous, and have had even less training. Paul goes home on leave, to discover that his mom is sick with cancer, and that he no longer feels like he belongs at home. The war prgresses, and eventually none of the men from the original class survive. Then we spent time discussing why the book was so successful, and why it took 10 years after the war was over to be published. There are a few reasons for each. We then discussed the loss of identity that the returning soldiers felt. Most of them only had their schooling, and the war, and that was all they knew. It was difficult for some to find their own identities as they returned home. We also discussed what it takes to regain your own identity, unltimately deciding that you need to find something new to cling to.