The main motif of childhood comes up a lot through-out the first two chapters of All Quiet on the Western Front. While
reading these two chapters I noticed that the "young kids" that have
just volunteered to be in this war have learned quickly what is expected
of them, what they have to learn to do and what they have to leave
behind.
Everyone what happens when they fight, the people they
talk to and the many young kids that have recently come into this war.
Besides the fact that many of the youngsters are probably scared fro
their lives, they are always talked about because of their age. They are
told they need to mature, and leave their "young lives" behind. The
boys themselves learn this when they realize that this is reality and
they could be gone at any second. They have to fight solely for their
country but they also need to to learn to be safe. The boys understand
that other of the older men had careers, lives to live for, and wives
and children--they don't. But, they want to when they get out of this
war.
They still have the child in them that says what their
hopes are after this ends but the other part of them knows that this is
reality. If you don't do what your told, a person could be in as much
danger of dying if something goes wrong. They have to understand that
their best friends may die on them, but that this is something they just
have to go through to get out of this horrible disaster. They have to
mature out of the child they once were and that is why childhood came up
so much in these two chapters. Showing how the "young Irons" would have
to mature and become better men who were already there, and become
stronger and wiser just to make it through.
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