All Quiet on the Western Front

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. World War I changed society in many ways and ushered in the modern age. What were some of the impacts of WWI? How did this conflict change society as people knew it?

Teaching Suggestion: It may be beneficial to help students categorize the various impacts of WWI—technology, social consciousness and belief systems, disillusionment with government and leaders, the sociopolitical landscape, etc.

• “100 Years After WWI: The Lasting Impacts of the Great War,” an interview with Syracuse professor David H. Bennett, discusses the lingering effects of WWI a century after the war’s outbreak.

2. The novel’s protagonist, Paul, sometimes struggles to process the violence and conflict around him. Many people grappled with the devastation brought on by the war; artistic expression changed as a result. In this unit, you’ll be exploring some poetry inspired by the events of WWI alongside your reading. In what ways might poetry change and evolve to meet the needs of poets struggling to articulate new experiences for which there seems to be no language?

Teaching Suggestion: It may be helpful to emphasize the connection between this Short Answer prompt and the one above. The two are designed to work together to first build students’ understanding of the war’s impact on society, and then expand to build an understanding of how this affected creative expression, specifically poetry.

• “World War One Poetry” is a 10-minute video with Dr. Santanu Das, a professor of literature at the University of Oxford, that helps establish a working understanding of the link between WWI and poetry, as well as how the war pushed poetry into a new, modern age. A transcript of the video is included and is helpful to reference while watching.

Short Activity

No major conflict has ever been connected to poetry as closely as WWI. Not only was this conflict a subject for established poets, but many soldiers wrote poetry during and after their experience in the trenches. You will reflect on two poems written during WWI—the first in the early days of the war and the second several years into the war. After reading the poems, discuss these questions with a small group: How did attitudes toward war evolve during WWI? How did poetry itself (form, structure, and tone) adapt as poets struggled to find new ways to express new realities and experiences?

• “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon was written in 1914, at the beginning of WWI.
• “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, written in 1916, shows a different side of war poetry. It is worth noting that Rosenberg, unlike Binyon, served in the war and was killed in action in 1918.

Teaching Suggestion: In preparation for facilitating this activity, you may consider listening to all or some of “Poetry Was Never the Same,” an episode from The Poetry Foundation’s podcast Poetry Off the Shelf. You may also encourage students to consider not just what the poems are saying about war, but how the poems are constructed and what this might say about the war’s impact on poetry as a form of expression.

Differentiation Suggestion: For visual learners and/or students who need support with organization, consider providing a graphic organizer that provides space for each poem to be considered in terms of content/meaning and form/style.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Read and analyze the poem “September, 1918” by Amy Lowell. In this poem, Lowell explores the tension of navigating life’s small moments of beauty against the backdrop of a larger crisis. While Lowell’s poem is specific to WWI, it speaks to a universal part of the human experience. When have you experienced something similar, in which you were aware of your own “endeavor to balance [yourself] upon a broken world”? Take 5-10 minutes to journal on your own before engaging in conversation with a small group. Then, with your group, choose one aspect of your conversation to share with the whole class. Reference lines from the poem as needed.

Teaching Suggestion: You may choose to read the poem aloud to the class before students begin to reflect on it. It may also be helpful to brainstorm in advance possible contemporary connections for students, such as other global conflicts, climate change and the environment, COVID-19, politics and social justice, etc.

• “September, 1918” by Amy Lowell