"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a war novel by Erich Maria Remarque that reveals the ways in which war is not glorious, and the ways in which destroys a soldier 's happiness, innocence, and youthfulness. In addition, it uses imagery and characterization to describe some of the hardships the soldiers face in the trenches and at the front. Likewise, "Suicide in the Trenches" is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon that glosses over these topics as well, in the form of a poem. While both Remarque 's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Sassoon 's "Suicide in the Trenches" portray war as a destroyer of innocence and youthfulness, Remarque 's use of characterization to illustrate the theme is more effective than Sassoon 's use of imagery and word play, because it is more …show more content…
The use of imagery to describe trenches in both texts plays a big role in building up the theme that war destroys innocence and youth. For example, in Sassoon 's "Suicide in the Trenches", the phrase 'winter trenches ' is paired with words such as glum and lice, both of which have a negative connotation. (Sassoon, 5-6.) Sassoon also uses imagery to portray the front/the trenches as hell, and explicitly states that that is where youth, innocence, and laughter go to "die" because war destroys a person mentally, even if it doesn 't physically them. (Sassoon, 12.) Similarly, lice and glum are used to describe the conditions of the trenches/front in "All Quiet on the Western Front". Remarque shows the trenches as hell for the soldiers, especially Paul and his comrades. The extent is more severe in "Suicide in the Trenches", because the soldier boy ends up committing suicide, hence the title. However,