Men of 2nd Company
The 19-year-old narrator and protagonist who realizes he can never truly go home again.
Who is Paul Bäumer?
These animals are so fat and numerous in the trenches that they are nicknamed for their habit of eating the dead.
What are rats?
Before the war, this could be best described as Paul's occupation.
What is a student?
The term Paul and all men his age use to refer to themselves due to the trauma they have suffered from the war.
What is the Lost Generation
These items are the most prized possession of Kemmerich, later passed to Müller and finally to Paul.
What are the leather boots?
This 40-year-old soldier and cobbler has a "sixth sense" for finding food and "soft jobs."
Who is Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat)?
This weapon requires soldiers to wear masks and can cause them to "cough up their burnt lungs in clots."
What is gas?
Paul describes these prisoners of war as big fellows with "apostles' beards" who trade carvings for bread.
Who are the Russian prisoners?
The only good thing to come out of the war according to Paul.
What is comradeship?
These items in Paul's room "do not reach me" anymore when he tries to reconnect to them on leave.
What are his books?
Described as the "clearest thinker" of the group, he eventually has his leg amputated at the thigh.
Who is Albert Kropp?
These men continually get younger throughout the story and are often more trouble than they are worth because they "only now how to die."
While Paul is home on leave, he learns his mother is likely dying of this illness.
What is cancer?
To the soldier under fire, she is described as the "only friend, his brother, his mother," providing a "mute agony of hope" and shelter from annihilation
What is Earth?
These ironically keep Paul and others alive during a bombardment when they were out on wiring duty.
What are coffins?
This character insists on inheriting Kemmerich’s fine boots before the man has even died.
Who is Müller?
Soldiers often prefer this weapon over the bayonet for hand-to-hand combat because it is heavier and more versatile.
What is a sharpened spade?
Paul and Albert are sent here after being wounded during a village evacuation.
What is a Catholic hospital?
Paul describes a feeling of "foreignness" many times because he no longer feels like he belongs there.
What is home/his memories?
Paul manipulates this medical device to get off of the train and stay with Kropp.
What is a thermometer?
A skinny locksmith who is the biggest eater in the company and holds a deep grudge against Himmelstoss.
Who is Tjaden?
Paul and Kat steal this from a regimental headquarters to roast during a quiet night. They bring the leftovers to Tjaden and Kropp in jail.
What is a goose?
The novel ends with the protagonist's death on a quiet day in this month and year.
What is October 1918?
Paul observes that no soldier outlives a thousand of these, believing that survival is not a matter of skill but is determined by this "mysterious whirlpool"
What is "Chance"?
Paul and his friends all eat like kings while guarding the depot when he and Kat find these animals.
What are suckling pigs?
This massive peat-digger prefers the army to the grueling labor of his civilian job.
Who is Haie Westhus?
To visit three women, Paul and his friends swim across this body of water holding their boots.
What is a canal?
This is the number of survivors left in the Second Company after a particularly bloody offensive in Chapter 6.
What is thirty-two?
In order to survive, Paul states multiple times that the men have to transform into this during combat.
What are wild beasts?
According to Paul, this is the best place to see what war truly is.
What is the hospital?
A peasant farmer who is deeply troubled by the screams of wounded horses and eventually deserts.
Who is Detering?
The pest that Haie jokingly states he is saving up enough of to use to polish his boots.
What are lice?
The total length of the leave Paul is granted, including travel days.
What is seventeen days?
Throughout becoming a soldier, Paul and the others realize that many times, the people who have this are the least deserving of it.
What is power/authority?
Paul sees these insects "brimstone yellow with red spots" settling on the teeth of a skull.
What are butterflies?
The schoolmaster who pressured Paul’s class into volunteering by calling them "The Iron Youth."
Who is Kantorek?
This specific food item served in fat, red balls is considered a "bad omen" that an offensive is coming.
What is Edamer cheese?
Paul kills this French printer in a shell-hole and later begs his corpse for forgiveness.
Who is Gérard Duval?
According to Haie Westhus, this is "black pudding"
What is revenge?
Paul’s mother keeps these two food items in a jar and bag for months to give him when he returns.
What are whortleberries and potato cakes?