All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque tells his story by jumping from one point to another to make war more realistic to the reader. The men could be safe from danger and enjoying each others company by playing cards and smoking cigarettes one day, and then the next they are sent back to the front not knowing who would make it back. In chapter 10, for example, Paul and his friends are in an abandoned village when he and Kat find two baby pigs and have a great feast out of them. After a few days they must leave for another village and while travelling they are attacked and Paul and Albert are wounded, Paul in the leg and Albert just above his knee. Albert has his leg aputated, and does not return to the front with Paul. Remarque also uses imagery in nature to compare the liveliness of it to the dying of the soldiers. For example, when Paul is talking about the summer of 1918 on page 285, he talks of the red poppies, beetles, grass, and flowing waters that are all living peacefully all around them, while the soldiers are in despair and dying. Remarque also makes an interesting point through Paul that all the men, whether friends or enemies, are all human and comrades, just pitted against each other.