How Is Personification Used In All Quiet On The Western Front

The lost generation present in All Quiet on The Western Front by Remarque showcases the innocence taken away from the soldiers who were forced to partake in the war, and emphasizes the frustration about the loss of innocence forced upon the soldiers. Remarque’s use of personification in his work, “The war swept us away.” The war is unable to physically sweep you away and the composer implies that men were powerless to the events and consequences. The use of personification evokes the reader to connect with their emotions while reading All Quiet on The Western Front and acknowledge what the lost generation had to deal with, and how they felt powerless in the war. By saying that the war swept us away, Remarque positions us to understand that although the

Remarque applies inclusive language so we can sympathise with how the soldiers must have felt to be wandering in their hometown feeling like an outcast. The lost generation grew up in the war and couldn’t escape from it, and by applying metaphors, high modality language, and negative connotation in his work, “consumed in the fires of reality”, it is implied that the war is inescapable to these men, Remarque’s purpose of this is to illustrate to the readers that when the soldiers go on leave and they feel out of place since they grew up in the war, he is writing on behalf of all soldiers. The soldiers are depicted as being numb as they stroll around civilians who haven’t engaged in war and can live their daily lives, but for them it is the opposite. Remarque positions the readers in the sense of fear of war and evokes empathy for the soldiers who risked their lives and were forced to give up any life they had prior or the life they could