Blog Question for All Quiet On the Western Front:
Erich Maria Remarque adds to the chaotic feeling of war in this book by jumping from topic to topic. By changing what the main focus is frequently, the sudden rush of war is felt more by the reader. The stories he tells about soldiers in the war that may seem somewhat pointless makes people realize that it’s the little things you live for when you’re fighting constantly. He uses the literary device of flashback frequently to help the reader understand that prewar life becomes hazy for soldiers ruined by their experiences. Experiences that he notes reduce humans to nothing more than their animal instincts. Remarque embraces the confusion felt by skipping around a lot. He wants his readers to feel the way a soldier feels in a war, to have a better grasp on the emotional torment of the subject they are indulging in. If he were to have written this book in an orderly, chronological fashion, the novel would not contain these effects. He is making points that tear at the reader’s heart, which is a literary device called pathos. It is with these strategies in which Erich Remarque fully grabs his reader’s attention and gets his point across.
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