All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis

Many of the countries involved in the Great War had a reason to join, while some were involuntarily pulled into the struggle. For example, Germany wanted to show of their growing military and establish itself as a superpower while the Austro-Hungarian empire wanted to destroy the Serbian empire which they felt was threatening their national integrity. Other countries such as Great Britain were pulled into the fighting because of treaties they had signed which stated that if war broke out that they would come to the support of France and Russia. A first-hand account of the war and all of its travesties was published by a man named Remarque in his book All Quiet on the Western Front, where he recounts a fictional retelling of what the soldiers

This particularly clear when, on the battlefield, “the first bomb, the first explosion, burst in [the soldier’s] hearts. We [were] cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We [believed] in such things no longer, we [believed] in war”(Remarque 88). The Author’s use of diction in this passage underlines how war leads to consequences, specifically using the words “heart” and “burst”. The word ”heart” is commonly associated with compassion, caring, and love. The word “burst” is used in conjunction with the word “heart” to help demonstrate how the soldier’s first exposure to the war swiftly cut off their emotions and forced them into a state where they were incapable of experiencing said emotion. This separation from reality affects the soldiers, because later on in the quote it says that they were “cut off from activity, from striving”, showing how the lack of humanity caused a cascade of other issues including not being able to strive in life and a lack of passion. The consequences of losing their humanity also resulted in them not being able to relate to anybody, and throughout the story there are many cases where Paul is unable to feel happy or sad even though regularly he would have been overfilled with happiness or joy. As

The Allies created the Treaty of Versailles to prevent Germany from ever recovering and returning as a superpower contender. In the treaty the Allies demanded that Germany ”compensate for all damages done, completely restore Belgium, and [pay] a five percent interest on debt”(Treaty of Versailles 232). The treaty never had the intended effect, because in an attempt to repay their debt, Germany printed lots of money that caused rampant inflation and resulted in many people in losing their jobs. The dire situation in Germany led to the rise of the Nazi party, who promised to stop paying reparations and to fix the situation in Ggermany by creating jobs and rebuilding the military. By forcing Germany into paying for the reparations, the Allies stabbed themselves in the back because in desperation the people of Germany turned to extreme right-wing parties, leading to the rise of people like Hitler and other fascist leaders. Although the initial goal of the Treaty of Versailles was to prevent Germany from fighting back, it did more harm than good because it created an atmosphere where extremists like Hitler