AQ from Kerry Blodgett

All Quiet on the Western Front
In Erich Maria Remarque’s, All Quiet on the Western Front, he jumps around in a young German soldier’s, Paul Baumer, story to create a sense of confusion often found in war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque, not only jumps back and forth from the front line to the times of rest, but also to Baumer’s memories of the past. The jumping back and forth helps the story, because in war soldiers often think of the times of peace and those things in their past like family to help them get through the war. Remarque’s use of nonlinear writing shows that often time isn’t known to the men in war. One day they are on the front line fighting, fearing they will be dead, to a time a rest where they can reminisce on the past. Remarque also uses pathos to enhance the story. The Germans are often seen as the bad guy to the Western world, but in All Quiet on the Western Front, it is revealed that these men are just like the men fighting for the Allied forces. The Germans have families and lives other than war and are suffering just as much if not more than those of the Allies.