Word Choice/Sentence Structure All Quiet on the Western Front

Word Choice/Sentence Structure All Quiet on the Western Front

"Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?"


              This a quote from chapter 9 where Paul has just killed a French soldier and is regretting it. He is thrown over the psychological cliff. His idea of the war he is in has changed completely. He now realizes after looking at the pictures of the French men's family that he is no different then him. I like this passage because I sense true voice involved. Remarque felt this way about the war when he fought in it. I think in writing this way he has captured the reason for this war ending the way it did. The men of the first World War were pressured by nationalism to fight the war. Remarque is expressing this opinion throughout the book but I feel its the strongest during this chapter and this specific scene.