Stolen Lives

2.     “We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts.  We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war” (87-8).

This quote relates to a sad reality for those of whom are participating in the war.  It tells the reader that the soldiers are being deprived of regular lives, robbed of the chance to lead happy lives.  The line "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces." displays the manner in which the soldiers lives were snatched from them.  Just as they began to reach their prime and started to gain independence, their happy futures were stolen from them as they were called to serve in the army.  These opportunities were replaced by bleak, miserable and desensitizing experiences and pathways.