All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis

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All Quiet On The Western Front tells the desolate tale of Paul Baumer and his comrades. They are fresh out of high school and enter World War I fighting on the side of Germany. As the story unfolds, Paul shares how the war has changed him, and how devastatingly powerful the impacts of war are on man. Paul will come to question his purpose in the war, and learn that he is simply a pawn for his nation. Germany condemned an entire generation of young men to death, and this is the story of how Paul Baumer and his comrades were egregiously betrayed by their home country. Millions of men were fed nationalistic rhetoric that this fight would be easily won and they would be welcomed home as glorious heroes, but this was false. Germany misled these …show more content…

Paul and his comrades go on to speculate about this disappointing display, and further the conversation on the topic of the war and its relevance to them. They are all in agreement that this war is being fought for those in power and not in the interest of the people. Paul and his comrades understand that they are not fighting against those they hold grievances towards, but rather those that have been stuffed with the same propaganda they have been. To make matters worse, once the Kaiser departs, they are all ordered to return their brand new uniforms. Paul and his comrades have been let down by their nation's own figurehead, and have been forced to refund the one rare sliver of joy that they received. By the end of the book all of Paul's comrades are dead, and his own death will mark the conclusion of the story. Paul perishes just one month before the war ends, clouding his death with a deep sense of irony. He spent years surviving in appalling living conditions, brutally killing men, only for his death to come on a quiet, peaceful afternoon. Paul does not die fighting, he does not die from the gas, but simply from a lone

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