All Quiet on the Western Front

UNIT 2: NOVEL STUDY

EUROPE IN 1900

THE GREAT WAR• 1914- 1918- The Great War (only after 1945 was it called World War One)

• Most violent and explosive struggle in history until 1939

• Over 35 million people died as military and civilian casualties- including the millions who died of the flu post 1918

• Transformed the political landscape of Europe (borders) but also changed the values and perceptions of ‘civilized’ Western society

VALUES OF TODAY• What a society values and supports is extremely important in regards to the standard of

living within a country. World War One changed the societal values and norms to a great degree.

• What do you VALUE as characteristics in people?

• What do you ASPIRE for in life?

• What characteristics in people do you DISAPPROVE of?

EUROPE IN 2013

EUROPE ON THE BRINK OF WAR• The major countries of Europe throughout the 1800’s had formed defensive alliances that

divided Europe into two hostile camps

• Central Powers: Germany, Austria Hungary and Bulgaria (and Italy for a brief time)

• Triple Entente (Allies): France, Great Britain (which included Canada), and Russia

• June 1914 the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated by a terrorist.

• This spark, although it occurred in a part of the world that many Canadians had never even heard of (Bosnia), due to the alliances, it caused each member to get involved in what would become a World War (think of dominoes falling down).

GERMANY• By 1900 Germany was the most powerful military and industrial nation on earth

• Germany was in an unfortunate situation, they had France on their Western border and Russia on their Eastern border

• Germany had been preparing for war since 1905. Their goal: Defeat France quickly and then turn their attention to the massive Russian Empire.

• Germany began the war by invading Belgium. They succeeded but only to just outside of Paris. Most of the War would be fought on the border of France and Germany and Germany and Russia.

WAR PRE- 1914

MODERN WARFARE• Machine Guns, Heavy Artillery, Canons, Barbed Wire and Explosives had all been

increasingly developed in the years leading up to 1914…and most European Powers had the same weapons

• All military leaders were trained in the old school style of war- Charging with your horses at a machine gun really didn’t turn out very well for the horses.

• Soldiers had little choice but to “dig in”- Henceforth by 1915 Trench Warfare became the norm- Attrition

• “Over the Top”

THE COST OF THE WAR• Political and Social consequences- 4 empires of Europe collapsed- Germany, Austria

Hungary, Russia and the Ottomans (Turkey)

• Europe became ‘unstable’- 1919 The Treaty of Versailles- Germany blamed for the war

• Every person in Canada, Britain and Europe had some connection to the war physically or through war efforts or rationing

• “The Lost Generation”- psychological effect on people was profound, including Remarque the author is All Quiet on the Western Front.

• Pessimism, uncertainty became the outlook on life for many returning soldiers and civilians (but not all)

THE EFFECT OF THE WAR• Traditional social values that had led to war: Honour, Duty, Glory, and Discipline- seemed hollow

• Many of the survivors blamed the older generation for permitting the war and its atrocities

• The old order was seen as morally corrupt and yet there was no new order to replace them

• Remarque’s novel (1929) spoke to an end of this generation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4m6YdLrk7M&safe=active

“All Quiet on the Western Front seems to encapsulate in popular form, the whole modern impulse; the amalgamation of prayer and desperation, dream and chaos, wish and desolation”

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT• 2013 we all have a general sense of what war is like: why?

• 1914 no one had any idea of what war was really like- the last major battle was not in living memory (1860’s)

• All Quiet gives us an idea of what war was like for the average soldier- an eyewitness account of sorts

• The novel takes place during the last two years (between 1916 and November 1918). It takes place in the trenches, behind the lines and away from the front

• All Quiet is an anti-war book- its message was opposite to the mentality of the day

Storm of Steel (1920)

Storm of Steel recounts the experience of Ernst Junger

Where All Quiet discusses the problems and obvious waste of human life, Storm of Steel shows the camaraderie, toughness and struggle for superiority that the older generation valued and the Nazis valued

Both were world wide best sellers, but we do not necessarily respect Storm of Steel today in the same was as All Quiet on the Western Front.

NOVEL STUDY SCHEDULE• Monday March 4th- Official First Day: Introductory Period

- homework: Chapter 1

- Chapter Questions for each Chapter

• Friday March 8th- Students are expected to have read up to Chapter 5

- First Unit Activity introduced

• Over the March Break- only expectation is to read to then end of Chapter 5