The soldiers in the field are seen as the adults; the toughest of the tough, but when closely examined, a nation’s youth is found, trapped in a warriors outfit. Although fighting gruesome battles, and suffering inconceivable casualties the young sent to the field still hold their sense of innocence through the darkest of hours. In the story All Quiet on the Western Front, the theme of youth and innocence is replayed over and over through the use of repetition to show that the young that fight in the fields never lose their innocence.
Although fighting as adults, the boys who charge on to the fields of war are far from adults, and still hold their youth and innocence. At the outpost where the soldiers sit, both the actions they commit, and the attitudes they hold show a childlike figure. High-jinks aren’t above these young soldiers, as seen with their engagements with Himmelstoss, and problems encountered are handled less maturely. An example of these high-jinks is when the two soldiers are asked to empty the latrine buckets, “In spite of ourselves we tripped and emptied the bucket over (Himmelstoss’s) Legs” (25). Funny, but not an act of maturity. In addition towards the end of the chapter, a friend of the soldier dies. He sees the death, collects the belongings and runs. “My feet begin to move forward in my boots, I go quicker, I run” (25). The poor soldier runs from his dead friend; runs from the problem. No one can begin to understand the pain that he felt, but the fact that he ran shows that he is scared; that he wants an escape; that he can’t confront the problem. The soldiers may be expected to be adults, but the truth is all the soldiers are just kids trapped in uniforms; still young and still innocent.
