War is destructive and chaotic. World War I is one of the most destructive wars known to man, over 18 million people died, 11 million being soldiers and 7 million being civilians. This war made an immense impact on everyone, and it became very unlikely to find a family that was not affected by the war. The horrors of war are commonly underestimated by civilians. The soldiers in World War I were put in horrendous environments where they had to go through horrible experiences. Many pieces of literature were published after World War I, for example novels and poems. The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem,“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen, is based off World War I. Remarque and Owen used different literary devices to display the common theme. By using diction, figurative language, and imagery Remarque and Owen justify the belief that only soldiers will truly understand the traumatizing and terrifying experiences in war. Remarque often portrays a soldier’s horrible experience through word choice. When Paul is wounded on the battlefield, he arrives at a hospital to recover. As Paul is recovering he can only walk on crutches, and he observes the hospital on crutches: “A man cannot realise that above such shattered bodies there are still human faces in which life goes its daily …show more content…
Owen, the speaker, wrote his poem as a tribute the soldiers that passed in World War I. The speaker is very adamant on his opinion about war, as he was a soldier in World War I himself: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” He uses a metaphor to compare the soldiers to cattle because soldiers are trained and then sent to the battlefield where they die, whereas cattle are fed and sent to the slaughterhouse. By using this metaphor it shows that soldiers are very much aware that they will die because they are traumatized by seeing their own comrades die on the