Effects Of Chemical Weapons In All Quiet On The Western Front By Remarque

Chemical weapons are weapons that are used to induce mass destruction to many victims leaving them in a state of agony often resulting in death. Gas masks are used to provide some protection for the chemicals. Next, the destruction of the chemical weapon was very vast as can be seen through the death and the environmental changes. Chemical weapons may be any toxic chemical that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action. In Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, poisonous gas is portrayed as a graphic and horrifying war weapon that is used against Paul and the other German soldiers by the allied forces.

The portrayal of poisonous gas as a war weapon is described by Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front in a graphic and horrifying manner. He gives examples of how the gas is used against Paul and the other German soldiers by the allied forces. When they are bombarded, Paul and his comrades “expect the attack to follow and lie with [their] masks on, ready to tear them off as soon as the first shadow appears” (Remarque 79). Specifically, Remarque also focuses in on the torture that gas can inflict on human beings when Paul sees

Chemical weapons have some “immediate effects of chlorine gas toxicity include acute inflammation of the conjunctiva, nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, and bronchi. Irritation of the airway mucosa leads to local edema secondary to active arterial and capillary hyperemia. Blistering gas is another form of chemical weapon” (OPCW, Sheet 4). It was “first tested in combat in 1917 by Germany and {has} been used in several conflicts since” (OPCW, sheet 4). This Chemical agent is “primarily dispersed in liquid or vapour (aerosol) form and may persist for days” (OPCW, Sheet 4). Because it is usually used in vapor form, troops are unable to know if it lies ahead. Also, it is impossible to control due to wind conditions.