How Does The Author Use Irony In All Quiet On The Western Front

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the author effectively utilizes these literary devices in order to highlight his negative opinion toward the subject of war. Imagery is consistently used throughout the novel as Remarque accurately depicts the cruelty of warfare and its effects on the

The style of writing of an author can tremendously impact the meaning and purpose of their pieces of literature. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the author’s style of writing has an extensive impact on how readers perceive the story. Remarque was a soldier during World War I, providing him with first hand experience on the effects of war. These past experiences allow him bring the novel alive using his memories. Erich Maria Remarque’s style of writing has a colossal effect on the novel because of the level of detail he uses when describing scenes and moments of action.

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

In war, both violence and fear revokes a soldier’s humanity. These elements of war cause a person to shut down their emotional instincts, which causes the soldiers to mature rapidly by taking innocence along with joy and happiness in life. Through the experiences that the soldiers encounter, their humanity is compromised. Thus, as war strips soldiers of their innocence, they start to become disconnected from themselves and others. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the negative effects war has on a soldier’s humanity, through his use of Paul’s books and the potato pancakes by revealing the soldiers loss of emotion that causes them to become detached from society. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. Likewise the potato pancakes reveal Paul’s emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

Remarque claims that,“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war” (Remarque). All Quiet on the Western Front is considered one of the greatest war books of all time. In the novel, Erich Maria Remarque cleverly weaves political and social issues with symbolism, imagery, and metaphors to help illustrate his arguments.

War is a terrible thing. In All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Remarque illustrates that very image. In the book, Paul and his comrades experience the horrors of war and learn a lot along the way. About each other, about war, and about life. In All Quiet On The Western Front, Remarque uses destructiveness of war by showing loss of innocence, to explain the character’s emotional problems, and to show the reader the damage the character’s take.

Irony is not always funny; verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used to assert truth or to add depth to an author’s writing. In Erich Maria Remarque’s book, All Quiet on the Western Front, the reader experiences years of life on the front of World War I through the eyes of a young German man, Paul Bäumer, who has enlisted with his classmates at the expectation of their schoolmaster. Remarque uses irony throughout his novel, best displayed in the names of the characters, the various settings, and in the deaths of the characters.

Tim knew to properly scare someone, you have to do it at night because the darkness causes people to imagine things that aren’t actually there.

As scientific innovations and developments push the frontier of our technological capabilities, the threat of using them for evil is an all too present reality. While at the height of the Cold War, John F. Kennedy said, "Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.". In his groundbreaking book, All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich M. Remarque seeks to spread this pacifistic message and anti-war sentiment, after the devastation brought by the First World War (Remarque 1982). As the biggest, most technological advanced and deadliest war of its time, this new breed of warfare has left ripples all across the fabric of the global society (Rowley 2003). Remarque wanted to use this book to recreate the horrors of this war in a fictional, yet ghastly tale. In his own words, he wishes All Quiet On The Western Front "to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure..." (Remarque 1982). Having served personally on the German front lines during the First World War, Remarque translates this firsthand experience of the war into this book (Gale 2003). He wanted to pay homage to his fallen comrades of his generation, saying "It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who were destroyed by the war" (Remarque 1982). Remarque weaves a tale that gives a new, horrifying, and shocking account of the trauma that soldiers face on a daily basis while on the front (Gale 2003). He uses this, and his own experiences from, and after, fighting in

In the words of Otto Von Bismarck, “Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.” Many of the preceding war novels to All Quiet on the Western Front, misrepresented or overlooked the anguish of war, in favor of more resplendent ideals such as glory, honor, or nationalism. The predominant issue of All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible atrocities of war. The reality that is portrayed in the novel is that there was no glory or honor in this war, only a fierce barbarity that actually transformed the nature of human existence into irreparable, endless affliction, destroying the soldiers long before their deaths.

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” During his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1961, John F. Kennedy explained how war was an unnecessary and detrimental action to take for means of peace. This quote exhibits the true values of the protagonist in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel All Quiet on the Western Front is a remarkable way to immerse into the lives of German soldiers during World War One due to the fact the author had firsthand experience in the life of the war.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was the war novel that changed what ‘war novel’ meant. No longer would war be a fantasy for the growing generation, but a real-life death trap. World War I came with many innovations to warfare: machine guns, poison gases, trench-style warfare. While these technologies were supposed to improve warfare, it made war longer with more casualties. In All Quiet on the Western Front war is not looked up to, it is looked down upon from the perspective of a soldier. Remarque stated that he wrote the novel to tell of a generation that had been corrupted by the war. Along with that, it is evident that the novel was meant to tell how the war corrupted so many, the horrors of war. Remarque tells the story of a new war generation and the horrors that ensued through the use of symbolism, imagery, figurative language, and tone.

War is seen as horrific at any point of history as it exhibits unjust death and destruction. Most exclusively shown by World War I and its new and improved technologies and powerful governmental drives lead to millions of lives not only lost but also destroyed. Rich Maria Remarque expresses this view of war through his renowned novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a story about a group of soldiers who fought in this horrific war. War forces a soldier to find comfort in unlikely places, such as the earth, emphasizes meaning but takes away the quality of life, as shown through the symbol of boots, and shows how war takes away passion and replaces it with a forced drive, shown through the horses. These symbols are all expressed within Remarque's story.