[Discussion] Runner-up Read | All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Chapters 7-9
Welcome back home to Buchklub. Since you're on leave, you should read this summary and discuss this book with me. Look at the schedule and marginalia when you have time.
Summary
They need 100 more soldiers, so they are off duty. Himmelstoss wants to be friends. Tjaden still thinks he's sus. He is the new cook and gives them food and peeling duty. Their needs are simple enough: food and sleep. They stick to a routine and don't think of the front. All is quiet for now. Their humor is dark and bitter to cope. They know their memories they pushed away will come back after the war is over.
They see an old poster of a young woman in a dress and white shoes with a man in white trousers. They rip the man off the wall. Fittingly, Leer sees it and, well, leers at her. He's been with a woman before. The rest go to get deloused even though their clothes will just relouse them.
One day they go for a swim in a nearby canal. Three women walk past from the opposite bank. Neither are allowed to cross by the bridge. Paul speaks in broken French. Another guy mimes eating bread. The girls agree to meet later that night. They get Tjaden drunk so he passes out. In the evening, they wrap up some rations and put it in their boots which they hold above their skinny-dipping selves as they swim across. The women welcome them inside after they've given them some clothes. Paul has relations with a small dark haired woman. As they leave, Tjaden swims over with more rations.
Paul gets leave for two weeks plus time to travel and more time off for training. He wonders if he'll ever see his friends again. He rides the train home. His hometown looks the same. His sister sees him and calls for their mother. She is sick in bed, so Paul goes to her. He brought food for them, too, arranged by Kat. His mother asks how bad it is at the front. Paul lies to ease her mind.
A Major confronts him for not saluting him. Paul won't wear his uniform outside after that. His father keeps asking about the war. Paul can't talk about it. He meets his former German teacher and another schoolmaster who acts like a beer garden armchair general. Annex this and push through that. Others are self congratulatory because they don't mention the war. He'd rather sit quietly without thought.
Paul sits in his room and looks at his bookcase. He misses how he used to feel when he bought and read the books. He can't focus on reading them anymore.
He visits Mittelstaedt in the barracks. Their schoolmaster Kantorek was drafted along with the school porter Boettcher. Mittelstaedt gave Kantorek an ill-fitting uniform and took his revenge in little ways. He outranks him now.
Paul's family lives on his rations. There are no bones left for them at the slaughterhouse. He visits Kemmerich's mom who knows her son suffered while Paul said he died instantly. She couldn't handle the truth anyway.
His mom warns him about French women (too late for that) and how dangerous the war is (definitely too late for that). She took pains to get him two pairs of woolen underwear. He regrets going home.
The leaves on the trees are changing. There's a POW camp with Russians beside the training camp. The food is bad, but the Russians pick over the trash for scraps and trade their boots or metal carvings for bread. Paul guards them and doesn't see them as enemies. A piece of paper could be signed by VIPs to make them friends. He gives them cigarettes. One Russian dies every day and is buried. One guy played violin in Berlin before the war and played folk songs for them.
Before his leave is over, his father and sister visit him. His mother is in hospital with cancer waiting for an operation. They are drowning in debt and worried over the cost. His father will have to work overtime.
Paul returns to his regiment. They are moved where the fighting is the worst. Tjaden, Müller, Kat, and Kropp survived. They are to be moved to the eastern front to fight Russia. Everything is cleaned and polished because the Kaiser is coming to review them. It was disappointing to the men. There wouldn't have been a war if a couple dozen men had said no. Armies fight for their fatherland and protect their country and all think their way is just. They argue over what the state is and why the people have to fight the state's wars. They only wore new things for inspection.
Going to Russia was just a rumor. They are sent to the western front. Trench mortars do worse damage. It blew the clothes off of men and blew their bodies into the trees. They take cover in shell holes. Paul is overcome with fear and shellshock. He blames the leave he took for making him soft. The voices of his fellow soldiers snapped him out of it.
He is lost in the trenches. Paul hides in a shell hole with water up to his waist and plays dead but has a dagger in his hand. Someone falls into the shell hole with him, and he blindly stabs at him until the man is half dead. Paul is stuck there under heavy fire. The man's eyes stare at him in terror. Paul gives him water and bandages him up. The Frenchman dies. Paul thinks of the man's wife and the letters he wrote home. He goes through his papers: he had a wife and child. His name was Gerard Duval. Paul vows to send them money and live so the death he caused wouldn't be in vain. Paul forgets the oath by the afternoon. He runs into holes between each rocket until he finds his regiment.
Kat and Kropp tell him there was nothing he could have done differently. Snipers kill every day and have competitions. It is war after all. It's kill or be killed.
Extras
La guerre: the war
Grand malheur: great misfortune
Pauvres garçons: poor men
Kleinheubach is where Paul lived according to a map I shared in the Marginalia. It's in Bavaria.
Whortleberries: in the blueberry family
Their talk of how each side wishes they'd win reminds me of The War Prayer by Mark Twain
See you next week, February 23, when you're back on duty for the conclusion of this book.