children as protagonists of war fiction

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Princess Frances

Active member
I see this increasingly and... i just shake my head in disbelief!

No one should believe that a young child can lead a fearsome guerilla force but, in at least one acclaimed book, one of the leaders in a resistance group was about 10 or 11 (it was slightly vague).

imagine Eisenhower or Montgomery offering to ship men and materials to these two and you see where i am going:

Judith McGregor as a 1945 flower girl.jpg
 
When I was a schoolkid, we had a series of historical novels called "We Were There At _________". Each book would faithfully portray actual events (apparently unlike what Frances has seen); the only change was putting school-age kids at the scene of the events. The fictional children would not CONTROL the events, just live through them. The one specific volume I recall showed the siege of the Alamo; of course, the author made sure that the children inside the Alamo didn't get killed.

(In truth, Dictator Santa Ana did not murder children or women-- which is possibly the only good thing that can be said about him. His OWN people couldn't stand him, which is why numerous Mexicans fought on the TEXAN side in that war.)
 
First, is that picture of someone you know?

There are two book series that deal with minors who took place in battles/wars. Both of them were fantasy books, which are more acceptable as they are a break from real life situations. The series are Narnia and Enders Game series (which I haven't actually read or watched the movies). Harry Potter is on the fringes all out war or battles as we traditionally think of them.

Peter was roughly 14-15 when he fought in the first book, but it was Aslan's army until he sacrificed himself, leaving Peter to lead it the next day. Edmund, at about 11 held his own but was nearly mortally wounded after stopping the White Witch's ability to turn the army to stone.

Caspian at about 14-15 was always outmatched (PC book) in his first battles and finally agreed to turn over his leadership to Peter, who while nearly the same age physically, was decades older mentally and strategically.

Ender was 10 when he was recruited to lead an army (again, I haven't read the series so I don't feel comfortable trying to explain a plot I only read about in blurb form).

Harry Potter and his six friends in OotP were lured into a trap and had to battle their way out with not much success. They were all 14-16 years old against about 12 adult wizards and witches.

This actually is an interesting topic and it would be nice to see more titles.

MrBob
 
As an aside, there was a case of a 12-year-old boy named Calvin Graham who lied about his age and managed to join the US navy in 1942 and was assigned to the USS South Dakota out of Pearl Harbor as loader of the anti air craft guns. He hand was injured at the Battle of Guadalcanal by shrapnel, but still helped rescue other seamen and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He was only found out when he traveled back to Texas, his home, after hearing of his grandmother's death and went AWOL.

He then married at age 14, became a father at age 15, and divorced at age 17 after joining the Marines.

Talk about a busy early life!

MrBob
 
MrBob said:
Both of them were fantasy books, which are more acceptable as they are a break from real life situations.
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Yes, I agree that the fantasy aspect makes a big difference. The books are about children, but they are taking on adult roles, which is part of what childhood is about - imagining oneself as an adult and roleplaying as an adult. As such, I have never imagined CS Lewis to be advocating child soldiers.

Another point perhaps worth raising is that Lewis's Narnia is a world that is essentially equivalent to medieval Europe. I wonder what age people were regarded as becoming 'adults' at that time. Our modern idea of childhood up to the age of 18 is relatively recent, and at most times and places the age of adulthood has been rather younger. I don't know what age it would have been considered appropriate for someone to go to war in the Middle Ages.

Peeps
 
Reading about your question Peep, childhood, such that it was (completely different than we think of it today), was over at about pubescence or about 12. After that, they were generally sent out for apprenticeships or servants to other families unless their own family needed their help. Girls may also have been married off at that time.

One interesting thing that was stated is that in Medieval Europe, about one third of the population was under 15.

MrBob
 
A few things to note.. In the Enders game series, it's important that when he was first being trained in the stories Earth was in a battle of annihilation, and the older players in the story were already getting wiped out by the bugs. The use of children in military training was a last shot necessity, and not an indication of modern acceptable behavior. And, even then, until a key moment they were unaware that they were actively fighting by proxy and thought they were just being trained.

As for real life counterparts, unfortunately the world is replete with histories of children actively involved in war. Calvin Graham was the youngest caught after he was injured in world war II, but numerous people have admitted that they enlisted at 13-15 years old and served through world war II. I'd imagine similar things happened in Korea and Vietnam, and it probably was rendered MUCH harder with Gulf War 1 and 2. Currently in the Ukraine there are child soldiers fighting for their homeland and their survival.

This is happening NOW. Right now.

So sadly, it's not unbelievable, it's just something the current generations of people haven't had to acknowledge. But for Orson Scott Card's generation, or CS Lewis' generation, in the greatest threat to everything that existed... it was commonplace. In our world, it still happens far too often, but we're in a country and a position (in the US) where there's just not enough of an existential threat that even children get involved out of desperation or anger.
 
Not necessarily. In Harry Potter, while Harry was a wizard, he was going up against far more superior wizards and witches. Neither the Pevensies nor Caspian had superpowers while in LWW, they were going up against a powerful witch. Another interesting story in which most of the battle was not actually shown is "The Neverending Story". At the climax, Atreyu, a roughly 12-year-old boy led an army against major powers, some powers of darkness. Of course, how old he actually was at that point was in question as there was some kind of time abyss going on. Dame Eyola told Bastian some time after that battle that he had been in Fantasia for 100 years, yet he (and Atreyu) had not aged.

MrBob
 
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