Composers aspire to communicate the representation of their text influencing the understanding and meaning that the audience obtains. Remarque through his text ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and U2 through their song lyrics ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ have displayed various aspects and viewpoints of war. Both composers have expressed different perspectives allowing the responder to gain separate understandings of similar concepts concerning the various issues and horrors of war. It is the composer’s application of structural features and language devices in their individual text that seek to challenge the audience to reassess their past beliefs and opinions involving war. Therefore this emphasizes each composer’s accomplishment in achieving their goal being to persuade the responder.
Remarque tells of the dehumanizing effects that are perceived in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. When the young soldiers arrive at the frontline its nothing to what was anticipated as they had “just begun to love the world and being in it, but we had to shoot at it.” Remarque’s characterisation of Paul is naive and inexperienced as he only just begins to grasp the understanding, through torment and fatality, that they didn’t “believe in those things anymore; we believe in war” their new objective was to survive. Trained to disregard their conscience and distancing themselves from their own emotions, taught to let go of their former lifestyle. “Keep things at arm’s length” was their innovative technique in being able to endure the horrors of war. The audience is alarmed by the lack of emotion deemed by the young soldiers through Paul’s metaphoric language that “we have become wild beasts” enlightening context to the overall traumatic experiences that were inflicted. Remarque continues to portray the emotional state in a distant tone that “we are dead” convincing the audience they are completely detached