The government was aiming to make the war seem like something of an escapade, and something positive to be a part of. The government was hiding the real truths of the war to the younger generation, and instead used propaganda to make the war seem like a very rewarding experience. An example of propaganda was a poster used in 1917 to persuade young men to join the war. The poster read, "Fight alongside Your Friends, Fill up the National Guard" ("Come on Boys!"). This poster uses a persuasion method of pathos, where there the words "Fight alongside Your Friends" create feelings of exhilaration and thrill to be able to fight alongside your "friends". In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer and his classmates are convinced by their high school schoolmaster to join the army: "I can see him now, as he used to glare at us through his spectacles and say in a moving voice: 'Won't you join up, comrades?" (Remarque 11). Kantorek's provocative speech fills the students' minds with ardent eloquence about prestige and the duty to fight for their country. He used his jurisdiction as a schoolmaster to persuade the students that it was their duty to enlist in the war and fight for their country.
Paul and his comrades initially believed that there were many righteous reasons to join the war with a clear prominence on the ideals of nationalism and patriotism. However, after joining the war, they realized that there were in fact many immediate consequences of war, such as the loss of innocence and the inability to re-connect to modern society. Due to the savagery of war, Paul has immediately lost his humanitarian characteristics, and instead has transformed into a cold, merciless shell of the innocent boy he once was. When Paul's military chief orders Paul and the soldiers to charge, Paul describes his mixed feelings of resentment towards death itself: "We have become wild beasts [.
