All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis Essay

War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.
Using diction, Remarque is able to communicate an anti-war theme in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. For example, after a very arduous battle, Paul tells the reader “Monotonously the lorries sway, monotonously come the calls, monotonously falls the rain” (24). The use of the word monotonously shows how monochrome, black and white, and lifeless and dull the world feels. Furthermore, after another battle, Paul tells the reader “And at each call a little group separates itself off, a small handful of dirty, pallid soldiers, a dreadfully small handful, and a dreadfully

For example, when Paul describes the new recruits and how they act in battle, he says to the reader “They listen, they are docile- but when it begins again,in their excitement, they do everything wrong” (134) It is practically a genocide, these new recruits are not ready for war and what it takes, they act like eager children, and die like flies. Furthermore, when the battle is at an end, a man calls and counts the men, Paul tells the reader “And there is a long silence before the voice asks: ‘Anyone else?’- and waits and then says softly: ‘In squads’- and breaks off and is only able to finish: ‘Second Company-march easy’” (136). The breaks show the quietness, the elephant in the room so to speak, as there are so few left, everyone else is dead. This is how the author uses syntax to express an anti-war