Youth In An Austrian Town
Kerry Burnite
World Literature
08/01/2014
Children at War
Adults start wars, children live through the wars. Children often do not get to make many choices or decisions in their lives, they must take life as it comes. In her story Bachmann explores the many changes in day to day life that occur during conflict. Children tend to be adaptable to many different changes in life. War, as seen through the eyes of a child, can quickly become a normal way to live. In her story,” Youth in an Austrian Town”, writer Ingeborg Bachmann discusses the changes that occur in a small Austrian town ,over time, during World War II. The town seems to be dying slowly during war and occupation by Germany. A once prosperous and busy port town, the factories have gone quiet and the docks and canals have closed down.”People rarely moved to this town from another town, because the farms had grown too small and they looked for accommodation on the outskirts where it was cheapest” (Bachmann 423). Still the fruit fell from trees and the seasons changed, the cycle of life continued. The children still attended school and played in the fields,though the fields now smelled like bonfires and strangers moved about, from one town to the next in a flight to stay alive. School is a way to keep the children occupied and busy. There, they can feel protected from the ravages of war. Bachmann wants the reader to see that even though the children are in school the conflict is still there, war creeps into the classroom. “The children don’t know what time it is, because the clock on the parish church has stopped. They always come home late from school now”(Bachman 424). Homework is assigned and completed and mathematics learned, every day brings a new challenge. Food is hard to find and the children must now learn to stretch every item to its limit. Corn is eaten from the cob and the cob is then dried and used for fuel. No longer are items discarded easily,everything has a value. Home takes
World Literature
08/01/2014
Children at War
Adults start wars, children live through the wars. Children often do not get to make many choices or decisions in their lives, they must take life as it comes. In her story Bachmann explores the many changes in day to day life that occur during conflict. Children tend to be adaptable to many different changes in life. War, as seen through the eyes of a child, can quickly become a normal way to live. In her story,” Youth in an Austrian Town”, writer Ingeborg Bachmann discusses the changes that occur in a small Austrian town ,over time, during World War II. The town seems to be dying slowly during war and occupation by Germany. A once prosperous and busy port town, the factories have gone quiet and the docks and canals have closed down.”People rarely moved to this town from another town, because the farms had grown too small and they looked for accommodation on the outskirts where it was cheapest” (Bachmann 423). Still the fruit fell from trees and the seasons changed, the cycle of life continued. The children still attended school and played in the fields,though the fields now smelled like bonfires and strangers moved about, from one town to the next in a flight to stay alive. School is a way to keep the children occupied and busy. There, they can feel protected from the ravages of war. Bachmann wants the reader to see that even though the children are in school the conflict is still there, war creeps into the classroom. “The children don’t know what time it is, because the clock on the parish church has stopped. They always come home late from school now”(Bachman 424). Homework is assigned and completed and mathematics learned, every day brings a new challenge. Food is hard to find and the children must now learn to stretch every item to its limit. Corn is eaten from the cob and the cob is then dried and used for fuel. No longer are items discarded easily,everything has a value. Home takes
Cited: Bachmann,Ingeborg. “Youth in an Austrian Town” The Longman Anthology,volume f , The Twentieth Century.David Damrosch. David L Pike, Pearson,2009, New York