All Quiet on the Western Front Lesson Plan

Discuss the passage in Chapter 8 where Paul describes the Russian prisoners, beginning with "I see their dark forms, their beards move in the wind," and ending, "But as it is I perceive behind them only the suffering of the creature, the awful melancholy of life and the pitilessness of men." Paul thinks, "...if I could know more of them, what their names are, how they live, what they are waiting for, what their burdens are, then my emotion would have an object and might become sympathy." What does Paul mean here? Why is it easier for him not to pity the soldiers if they remain anonymous to him?

This passage is important in part because it foreshadows the scene in the...