Glorification of child soldiers in YA

I've been noticing something similar in Sh@tter M3... The male protag and antagonist are both soldiers, barely out of their teens -- and the antagonist is already in command of a whole unit thanks to his dad's position...

I think it mainly shows up in dystopians (that I've seen, anyway). It does help to show how bleak the future world is, that people so young are forced out of their childhood into soldierdom? But yeah, it did bug me a bit in Legends that it doesn't really touch on how having to grow up so young affected June... But I didn't finish the book yet, maybe they do touch on it later?

It's a super common trope, not just in YA, but also regular fantasy and manga and video games.

Animorphs did a great job of it. Granted by the end of the series most of the characters were rather broken mentally with one of the main characters just plain dead.

But one of the problems with not going to glory route is that you end up with say the fifth year syndrome of Harry Potter where its just serious angst. If the characters and perhaps the audience don't get past it, then your bound to loose your readers. I don't envy the author who has to find a balance in all that.

The sad reality is that young boys and girls have and are fighting in wars.

In the Civil War, I have heard cases of boys being as young as 14 going off to fight. This is also true of the American Revolution and I'm sure a number of wars throughout history. Also, as you mentioned, it even occurs today.

I had a young soldier in my historical fiction on the American Revolution. I never told anything from his POV, but I tried to show a character who was still a boy struggling in a man's world. For example, he is given whiskey to drink by the other soldiers. He drinks it, but winces because it's his first time with hard alchol like that.

Also, when he is injured I have him call out for his mother. I have read that often happened

This is possibly one of the saddest songs to ever be performed. From the Tony-award winning musical, 1776. I think it captures--a little bit--of what these young men faced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTjun05QzzI

Anyways, I think if you show the psychological side-effects then you should be fine. It's rough territory, but sadly all too true.

You can't equate the viewpoint of a modern teen living with the social norms of our society to that of a teen raised in dystopian society where those norms are different. In the universe of a given book, teenage warriors might be a serious badge of honor.

Keep in mind that the idea of kids being kept out of such situations is counter to the history of every major civilization in existence, especially when times are desperate.

If you were to write about teens in the time of the Viking, there would be teens being killed in battle and killing others for glory. If you were to write about teens in the time of Sparta, there would be scenes of them watching newly weaned toddlers taken from their families to begin training. If you were to write about Medieval times or the Civil War or.... you get the idea.

Teens kept from warfare, teens kept from parenthood, teens kept from serious labor are modern ideas that have only recently become standard in the grand scheme of history. There's no reason to think that the standard wouldn't eventually swing back the other way if the conditions were right.

I believe the current age of enlistment in the US Army is 17 with parental consent, and 18 without. Soldiers of that age fought in both World Wars (even younger if they lied about their ID) and went on to live normal lives, 'the Greatest Generation' etc.
It all depends on the circumstances of your story.

Besides, a certain sort of a warrior image is a traditional escapist fantasy. Yes, in a not very realistic way--at least not the way typical for our society. Conan the Barbarian is just an example.

It's also an expression of an instinct that's always there. The forms and shapes it takes, however, depend on the cultural differences and the time period. Cyia is 100% on it with the Viking and Medieval references. For example, contemporary Japanese entertainment aimed at teens has loads of "fighting for the right cause and protecting those you love, remember, you are one with your sword".

I think the ideas behind the fighting are more important, namely, what thoughts and principles make the characters fight. That's what needs to be compared. A teen with a mindset of an honorable warrior and a miserable teen forced to fight in a war only corrupted politicians gain any profit from are two very different concepts.

I hadn't thought about Animorphs, Darkama, but you do have a point there.

I'm not so sure that I would say that a lot of books in YA are necessary glorifying it, though. Using it, yes, but there typically seems to be consequences. In Hunger Games, the consequences are pretty much throughout the books, but really clear when Katniss has PTSD.

I can't remember how Divergent treated it, though I think it might have been a little bit more on the glory side. Then again, it was sort of addressed by how the society was divided, and how other factions treated her faction.

I know in my novel, the main character (18) is put into a fighting position, and she's faced with fighting and killing, though she personally doesn't like it, and is conflicted by both it and some of the mental side effects.

In all honesty, I think glorification of any kind of murder, whether by child or adult, should be disturbing. But we've all been desensitized, so it's just entertainment. I don't think it's more disturbing in YA, just seen slightly less (especially in western culture), so some of us are still sensitive to it.

I think perhaps if I had to do something like that and I had the choice of using a larger cast of four to five MCs. Each one could be used to express certain aspects of their reality and experiences regarding war.

For my own work on my story (fantasy) I'm doing something similar though my male and female MCs will have two different opinions on combat in general, they won't be soldiers. At least not yet.

Granted in the setting I have they are both considered old enough to be adults and the society itself treats orphans as a commodity if they young enough to train them to be soldiers while preventing situations involving homelessness or potential 'abuses'.

My main thought is, four main factors, the society age of majority, the maturity level of the character in question, how society views soldiers and finally how your character is to react to it.

Speaking as someone who was a teenager pretty recently...I liked reading about badass fighter teens. It's part of a power fantasy, you know? I'm interested in characters around my age, and characters who are powerful fighters (not so much in the physical department as in wielding great magic). It's also what draws me to young superheroes like the Teen Titans and Young Avengers. Bonus points if it's a coming-of-age type of story that emphasizes the theme of "with great power comes great responsibility" as well as the whole "use this power only to protect the people you love" theme that often shows up in anime/manga.

No, it's not very realistic, and I've always been uncomfortable with characters who carelessly slaughter all who oppose them, but I don't see any problem with having teenage characters fight and win battles. Maybe it's hypocritical to draw the line at murder, but I do think there's a difference between a character who fights and a character who kills.

Granted, personally, I am not all that fond of teenager characters who are explicitly soldiers. Then again, I'm not fond of dystopians in general, so...*shrug* I'm not really qualified to judge whether stories like Divergent and Legend are glorifying teenage soldiers. I don't think there's anything wrong with having teenagers fight and be badass, though. Part of retreating into a story is just being able to enjoy the hero's fantastic feats. It's as old as myth.

Child soldiers will always make me sick. One of the reasons I like the Hunger Games so much is because it showed Katniss with a side-effect of war you don't see very often in media.

The main reason is because I was only seven when I saw a kid's dismembered hand on a road in Sudan. I was on a trip with my mother and we were passing through with bodyguards to get to a city with an airport. My mother didn't realize I wasn't asleep, and started talking about the kids from villages who were being forced into guerrilla warfare. It's pretty much scarred me for life.

I write a lot of violence in my YA stuff, but it's never, ever glorified, or even shown as "strong" in any character who commits it. Those characters always range between slightly to severely messed up.

But on a cultural level, not everything being described IS murder. In a society where battle = glory, killing your enemies isn't murder at all.

With forced or conscripted soldiers, then yes, it's pure horror, but for someone raised to believe that killing is the way to the afterlife, they're not going to balk at it.

Since the Hunger Games were mentioned, look at the difference between someone like Peeta and one of the career tributes. He was a pacifist to a great extent, while they'd only ever known their life to revolve around winning the Games. For one, it was horror getting off the platform, for the other it was eager anticipation.

I know what you were saying. What I'm saying is that if you're writing within certain cultures, and don't attach a certain amount of battle-won glory to child soldiers who "prove themselves", you're being disingenuous to the character.

Cyia said:

I know what you were saying. What I'm saying is that if you're writing within certain cultures, and don't attach a certain amount of battle-won glory to child soldiers who "prove themselves", you're being disingenuous to the character.

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Not to mention there is a big difference from being conscripted and volunteering.

Way of Kings actually deals with it in a medieval type setting as well, while not in as much detail we see it over the long haul in a person's life.

I have a theory on this.

I like writing about child soldiers myself. I think my (and especially teenagers) fascination with them stems from the fact that people grow up so late these days. Used to be people started being adults with real consequences and adventures pretty young. In fact, as a species, we're probably biologically hardwired to become adults around fifteen-seventeen, just as we are to kill. After all, we are a violent, predatory species which rarely survived past thirty at one time. Hell, 500 years ago, children gathered around the town square to watch beheadings for entertainment, and only 100 years ago, they gathered to watch lynchings. Modern society forces our species to stay children till we're twenty-five/thirty, and not kill anything. This is probably where dystopian child soldier books and video games come in--to fulfill a teen's (and adult's) biological yearning for independence and violence .

Brutal Mustang said:

I have a theory on this.

I like writing about child soldiers myself. I think my (and especially teenagers) fascination with them stems from the fact that people grow up so late these days. Used to be people started being adults with real consequences and adventures pretty young. In fact, as a species, we're probably biologically hardwired to become adults around fifteen-seventeen, just as we are to kill. After all, we are a violent, predatory species which rarely survived past thirty at one time. Hell, 500 years ago, children gathered around the town square to watch beheadings for entertainment, and only 100 years ago, they gathered to watch lynchings. Modern society forces our species to stay children till we're twenty-five/thirty, and not kill anything. This is probably where dystopian child soldier books and video games come in--to fulfill a teen's (and adult's) biological yearning for independence and violence .

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Reading this and wondering how many people you've killed haha. But I really don't think humans have an innate need for violence. That's a cop out. Prehistoric man wasn't predatory. We were preyed upon and only managed to survive because of our highly social nature. We evolved into predators because of that and our intelligence. As far as the animal kingdom is concerned, our greatest advantage over other predators is each other. That's what makes us dangerous, our ability to cooperate, not some bloody thirsty biological imperative.

er /derail

Huh. I write about glorified antihero violence and child soldier-types. ENDER'S GAME is one of my all-time favorite books. I never thought about it, I guess. Granted, it is SF/F, where such things are more common (or so I feel) and a bit removed from reality so less threatening (or is it?).

Still... I'm gonna go sit in a corner now and reflect...

What examples are there of YA literature glorifying child soldiers? I'm not being sarcastic; I'm genuinely curious what those books are. I can't really think of any American pieces of media that do such things, possibly excepting teenage superheroes/sidekicks.

Hey, I wrote a book about a teenage whose conscripted to become a space marine. My main inspirations were Full Metal Jacket (this link has LOTS of swearing) and The Forever War.

I was also inspired by the Hunger Games, though I wanted to take a tac that...to me, feels more realistic. The army actually exists, and the effects of being in it are real and present for teens throughout society. I also wanted to write in a science fiction setting that wasn't another goddamn dystopia (no offense to dystopia writers in the audience ).

So, I ended up with Debris Dreams. I'm fairly proud of it. I like to think that people who read the book will be impressed by my MC...not because she kills people, but because she doesn't. Her main heroic moment is when she refuses an illegal order to use indiscriminate kinetic areal denial weapons called Sandcasters.

(In brief, think like a giant space shotgun, except because they are in Earth's orbit, the debris from the impact are left over and clutter up orbit, meaning they'll kill anyone who gets in their orbit)

I don't write to glorify war. I write to, ultimately, decry a pointless and horrifying endeavor. The war in Debris Dreams is fought between two very distant political figures, fought not for ideology (though it's banded around a lot) but for raw resources and energy. And it is fought, ultimately, by the children of both sides.

And the end isn't happy because the battle is won...because, while it is, the cost is staggeringly high. The ending of Debris Dreams is bitter sweet at best, with the only real happiness coming from the fact that Dru is OUT of the battle.

...of course, that paves the room for the sequel, which is can be summed up by this one line: While you can take a soldier out of the war, you can never take the war out of a soldier.

Seriously, 50% of the book are traumatic flashbacks, nightmares, self loathing, drug abuse and body dysmorphia caused by cybernetic limb replacement.

Now...

The only thing I need to do is get the book published and become more popular than the Hunger Games and my life's goal will be complete!

missesdash said:

Reading this and wondering how many people you've killed haha. But I really don't think humans have an innate need for violence. That's a cop out. Prehistoric man wasn't predatory. We were preyed upon and only managed to survive because of our highly social nature. We evolved into predators because of that and our intelligence. As far as the animal kingdom is concerned, our greatest advantage over other predators is each other. That's what makes us dangerous, our ability to cooperate, not some bloody thirsty biological imperative.

er /derail

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Have you never seen chimps eat baby chimps on Animal Planet? The great apes can be sickeningly violent.

Brutal Mustang said:

Have you never seen chimps eat baby chimps on Animal Planet? The great apes can be sickeningly violent.

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That's not the same kind of violence, though, and it's motivated by something other than a thirst for blood.




A really fantastic portrayal of child soldiers is an anime called "Now and Then, Here and There". It's a far future dystopian based on water scarcity. All the main characters are child soldiers involved in a war over water, and some seriously fucked up things go down in the course of the series. There is zero glorification, and most of the characters reach the end with serious mental issues caused by the things they've been forced to do. It's also a much more realistic portrayal of the reasoning behind child soldiers as we see them in the modern day, as opposed to cultures like the Vikings or Sparta, where it was more an issue of being considered an adult at an earlier age.