We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill.

Explain

Paul reflects on war’s capacity to reduce men to instinctual animals. When he and his comrades fight on the frontline, all conscious thought and human emotion is erased, leaving room only for the will to survive. This desperation is a far cry from more traditional depictions of war as a proving ground for glory. Real war is not an adventure. Real war is legions of scared boys, frantically killing in sheer terror.