All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque shifts focuses between chapters to impress upon the reader the brokenness of thought, the changes that occur in seconds while on the Front. The chapters switch from fighting on the front, life maybe seconds from it's end to the relative safety of the soldier's barracks. But no one really realizes that death is not the only change from the Front. The soldiers fighting there become lost; humans are not meant to fight so much, to see so much death, to cause so much death. They can never go back to their original lives before the lives. Soldiers like Paul don't even have another option after the war. They were too young, there is nothing else but war for them. As the novel unfolds, Paul and the other soldiers question the motives for war: who even calls for it? They don't want to be there, shouldn't it be their decision? But they fight on, because that is all they know. Remarque displays this desperation, this lack of feeling in the soldiers. The imagery of the novel transforms the readers into the soldiers themselves, seeing the battle, hearing the explosions, acting on instinct, holding on to their pitiful existence. The pathos in the novel leads one to feel like a soldier, to be in the thick of it, fighting for your life.