Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Lost

Selene Heese26218410
“Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Regained. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Can Never Be Lost.” John Milton. Many writers and poets describe the effects of war on young people and also showed us that the war is not as it seems. Young soldiers lose their innocence during the war, this is a negative effect of war. In this essay the following will be discussed, the theme of innocence in the novel All is Quiet on the Western Front, poetry that discusses the loss of innocence in war and art that shows the cruelty of war.
One of the main themes in All is Quiet on the Western front is the loss of innocence. Most of the soldiers in the novel is twenty years old, but when they started this war they loss all of their innocence and they were not allowed to be young men anymore. They had to be soldiers and they had to defend their country. “Iron Youth.

An example of this is the poem of Wilfred Owen, Dulce et decorum est, this poem tells us the war is not as glamorous as it is made out to be. Young people do not sleep and they see horrible events that will scar them for the rest of their lives. We also tell our young people a lie according to Owen by his last line in his poem. “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” (Roberts, 1996) which means it is an honour to die for your country. Owen believes this as a lie, a lie which prompts our young people to go to war. Another poem that also uses the theme of innocence is Anthem for the doomed youth by Wilfred Owen (Roberts, 1996). The title of the poem show us that the war was fought by primarily by young men. They are encourage to fight in the war for their patriotic duty and maybe even for a sense of adventure. These young men grew up in rural areas and never saw the world, but after the war they will never be the same. They will grow up at a much faster pace than any other young person, as they experience death and exclusion from their old