All Quiet on the Western Front: Difference between revisions

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* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Paul has crossed it by the end of the book. He describes his feelings like this: "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear."

* [[Distracted From Death]]: {{spoiler|Kat dies while being carried to the hospital, and Paul doesn't notice until a medic at the hospital points it out.}}

* [[Does That Sound Like Fun to You]]: In the 1930 film, when on leave, Paul goes back to his old classroom to see Kantorek using the same speech he told his class on another group of young innocent students. Excited to see one of his former students drop in, Kantorek encourages Paul to tell them how grand being in the front lines are. To his credit, Paul was really uncomfortable and insisted he had nothing to say, but caved to his teacher's demands... and flat out told the students that [[War Is Hell]] and [[Take That|that their teacher was going to send them to their deaths like his class before them]].

* [[Does That Sound Like Fun to You?]]: In the 1930 film, when on leave, Paul goes back to his old classroom to see Kantorek using the same speech he told his class on another group of young innocent students. Excited to see one of his former students drop in, Kantorek encourages Paul to tell them how grand being in the front lines are. To his credit, Paul was really uncomfortable and insisted he had nothing to say, but caved to his teacher's demands... and flat out told the students that [[War Is Hell]] and [[Take That|that their teacher was going to send them to their deaths like his class before them]].

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: Corporal Himmelstoss, who trained Paul and his friends. Himmelstoss does a [[Heel Face Turn]] after having been forced to actually serve in the trenches.

* [[Dwindling Party]]: Starts off slow, but picks up the pace near the end.

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* [[Heroic BSOD]] : Paul has a very memorable one {{spoiler|after stabbing the French soldier trapped with him in a crater to death and then listening to him slowly die during the entire sleepless night. [[Must Make Amends|After he examines the dead soldier's personal belongings, he repentantly promises to secretly support his family once the war ends]]. [[Tear Jerker|Then he realizes he can't, because they'd eventually find out who's the mysterious donor and realize he's the one who killed their relative]].}}

* [[Humiliation Conga]]: Himmelstoss gets this early on in the book as revenge for his harsh boot camp rituals.

* [[If You Die I Call Your Stuff]]: A pair of good boots are passed around among the soldiers.

* [[If You Die, I Call Your Stuff]]: A pair of good boots are passed around among the soldiers.

* [[In Medias Res]]: The story starts with the characters already in the trenches. Paul later reminiscences about their training.

* [[Insert Cameo]]: In the 1930 film, {{spoiler|Paul's death scene shows his hand reaching for a butterfly; then a shot is heard, and the hand goes limp in death.}} The hand in the scene belonged to director Lewis Milestone.

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* [[Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap]] : An interesting non-sci-fi example. One of the soldiers in the story is overjoyed when he discovers ''an actual cherry tree in bloom'' during a march across the countryside to a new position. Since he (and the others) have spent entire weeks at the frontline, this is hardly suprising - the frontline being [[Mordor|a lifeless war-torn muddy wasteland]] and all.

* [[Peaceful in Death]]: When {{spoiler|Paul}} dies at the end, his facial expression is described as "calm, as though almost glad the end had come."

* [[Politically Motivated Teacher]]: Kantorek, who encourages his students to join the army, greatly romanticizing it as [[War Is Glorious|something glorious.]] [[Foregone Conclusion|Of course, he couldn't be farther from the truth.]]

* [[Politically-Motivated Teacher]]: Kantorek, who encourages his students to join the army, greatly romanticizing it as [[War Is Glorious|something glorious.]] [[Foregone Conclusion|Of course, he couldn't be farther from the truth.]]

* [[Popcultural Osmosis]]: The famous "butterfly" scene from the film is parodied by people who may well have never heard of the film, let alone the book.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: in the (unabridged) English translation, the word "fuck" appears only once. Other profanities are not terribly common (with "shit" being used sparingly).