Remarque demonstrates a mastery of language, which he manipulates to suit rapid shifts of tone, characterization, and theme, depending on his varying needs for graphic, blunt description, lyricism, dialogue, or lament. Passages illustrating these rhetorical devices are listed in the following sections.
Humor
"Then [the sergeant major] steams off with Himmelstoss in his wake."
"My arms have grown wings and I'm almost afraid of going up into the sky, as though I held a couple of captive balloons in my fists."
Personification
"The wind plays with our hair; it plays with our words and thoughts."
"Darknesses blacker than the night rush on us with giant strides, over us and away."
"Over us Chance hovers."
Euphemism
"At the same time he ventilates his backside."
"All at once he remembers his school days and finishes hastily: 'He wants to leave the room, sister.'"
