Who Do We Ask for Help When We Don't Know Which Way to Go? Say Map!

Read the following passage from All Quiet on the Western Front:

"We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial- I believe we are lost."

What theme is being represented in this passage?


a) comradeship
b) dehumanization
c) loss of innocence
d) oneness of man




Scroll down for the answer.

______________________________

a) is wrong because this has nothing to do with anyone being anyone's comrade
b) is the best wrong answer. Even though they have changed, they are still human and are acting like humans, just older humans
c) is correct because they are children that now experienced old men who have lost all innocence from the young child that they are
d) is wrong because no one is being one or acting as one. This has nothing to do with this sentence.



Thanks to Jessie from Ms. Stamey's class for this well written question.  Loss of innocence is a common theme in stories that involve younger characters, so if a passage on the EOC involves someone's childhood, look for it as a theme.  Stay gold, Jessie - and do it for Johnny!

(O.K., bad Outsiders allusion, but it is in keeping with the loss of innocence theme...)