Journey's End Loss of Innocence

Faulks demonstrates the loss of innocence in 'Journey's End' by highlighting the matter of fact attitude Stanhope possesses at the prospect of death at the hands of the German soldiers. This shows the lack of fear that Stanhope now has, due to being at war for 3 years and seeing the horrors it entails. "Yes. It'll come while we're here. And we shall be in the front row of the stalls." Stanhope says this to Osbourne as if he is simply telling him to go and clean out the guns, when in fact he is telling Osbourne that there is an attack on the way, which they both know they will likely not survive. This suggests that the idea of death may no longer scare Stanhope, due to its presence being everywhere in the war that he has spent a large part of his life fighting. Also, due to his dependency on alcohol, and the fact that he feels he cannot go home to his family due to him thinking he is an embarrassment to them, death may seem like an easy way to solve the problems that are currently facing him. Alternatively, Stanhope's lack of fear when delivering this statement shows just how good a leader he is to the men in his company; if he had let Osbourne and the other men know that their superior is afraid, then they most certainly would have been terrified. By hiding his emotions, Stanhope does not alarm the other men, which shows that he cares about his fellow soldiers, as he does not want them to be scared of what is to come.