All Quiet on the Western Front

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. In Chapter 1, the soldiers reflect on Kantorek’s description of them as the Iron Youth. What best describes the tone of their response?

A) Wistful and nostalgic

B) Sad and despondent

C) Bitter and disillusioned

D) Proud and confident

2. After Kimmerer’s death, Paul describes “the darkness and the wind as a deliverance.” Which of the following best explains this simile?

A) The natural world surrounding the soldiers is distracting.

B) Paul wants to escape from the pain and suffering of the front.

C) Paul mourns his dead friend and seeks solace in the night.

D) Kimmerer’s death has made Paul acutely aware of his own aliveness.

3. Which literary device does this quotation exemplify? “Reinforcements have arrived…they are about two years younger than us. Kropp nudges me: ‘See the infants?’”

A) Foreshadowing

B) Metaphor

C) Personification

D) Hyperbole

4. Which of these literary devices is most clearly exemplified by the following quote? “This is the front. Now we are within its embrace.”

A) Metaphor

B) Personification

C) Simile

D) Understatement

5. What does the personification of the earth in Chapter 4 reveal about its importance to a soldier?

A) It is the protector and only source of security during a bombardment.

B) It is an obstacle that the soldiers need to overcome.

C) It provides temporary shelter but is otherwise insignificant.

D) It provides a way to forget about the tragedies at hand.

6. What does the repetition of the word “monotonously” emphasize in Chapter 4?

A) That the soldiers are bored and tired of waiting

B) That there is a weariness that goes beyond the present scene

C) That the war is just one bad thing after another

D) That there is a sense of growing discontent among the soldiers

7. Which of the following ideas is most clearly suggested by the juxtaposition of the killing of men at the front and the killing of lice back at the camp?

A) The small activities soldiers take on to avoid boredom

B) The way the soldiers cannot escape death on the front

C) The abrupt shift between the terror and the mundanity of war

D) The ways that soldiers are able to build camaraderie

8. Which of the following best matches the way “laconically” is used in Chapter 5?

A) Disgusted and annoyed

B) Aloof and brief

C) Melancholic and despairing

D) Angry and indignant

9. Which literary device is used in this quote? “The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen.”

A) Hyperbole

B) Simile

C) Alliteration

D) Metaphor

10. What is the best meaning of “benediction” as used in this quote? “The evening benediction begins.”

A) The night as a reprieve from the fighting

B) A blessing given to the soldiers by a priest

C) A time of community for the soldiers

D) A time for solitude and reflection

11. What is the pivotal event that pushes Paul into despair at the end of Chapter 11?

A) His mother’s illness

B) Detering’s disappearance

C) Kat’s death

D) The soldiers’ starvation

12. Over the course of the novel, the presence of butterflies symbolizes different things. What best describes the evolution of this symbolism?

A) Comfort to death

B) Anxiety to calm

C) Peace to apprehension

D) Unease to loyalty

13. Which of the following lines is the best example of juxtaposition?

A) “But sometimes it broke out in other ways, this danger, these pent-up things.”

B) “When Kat is taken away I will not have one friend left.”

C) “Our hands are earth, our bodies clay and our eyes pools of rain.”

D) “All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died.”

14. What best describes the tone of Chapter 12?

A) Cautiously optimistic

B) Disillusioned and resigned

C) Angry and resentful

D)Tenderly nostalgic

15. What element of the narrative shifts in the last two paragraphs of the novel?

A)Structure

B) Rhythm

C) Point of view

D) Tone

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. When Paul is on leave, why is his return home so fraught?

2. Why is Kat’s death so significant and devastating for Paul?

3. Why does the author choose to abruptly shift from moments of calm to moments of war?