"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow" (263). This quote, from the book All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, illustrates how war creates a lost generation. Remarque shows through war, a generation can be lost because of the experiences the men undergo. Remarque demonstrates this though the use of symbolism, figurative language, and irony.

Remarque uses symbolism throughout the book to portray the devastation of a lost generation. Throughout the novel, Remarque shows how Paul Bäumer becomes a different person through the pain of the war. Paul feels that "[t]here is a distance, a veil between us" (160) when he returns home to his family. The war has changed Paul so much from his family that when he returns home for a visit he...