Analysis of a Theme - Eleanor Hardcastle

Jim is always unsure of when the war has begun, ended and started again, and he almost always shows a desire for the war to continue and start

1) In the beginning of the novel "Jim devoured the newsreels," that described the war effort and he hopelessly waited for the war to begin in Shanghai and dreamt of its arrival.
2) Once the war has begun he often asks people "Is the war going to end soon?" and I think this is done to show how young Jim is and how he doesn't understand what war is really like yet. Even though he has wished the war to start, he is really to young to know what he wants really and comforts himself by telling others that "The war's going to be over soon,"
3) When the war is nearing its end, Jim finds it hard to imagine life without it, because during war he matured and cannot remember life before it. "He could no longer remember what his parents looked like." and his only possessions (apart from his school blazer which was a "folded memory of his younger self") were ones collected inside the camp which would not remind him of his pre-war life.
4) When it is the end of the war Jim returns several times to Lunghua Camp even though it was one of his biggest struggles to escape. In the camp he feels protected by the Japanese and so he wants to hold onto the war to keep the normality of life and feel this protection
5) When Jim tries to confirm that the war is over, Jim is told by Mr Tulloch that the next will be starting soon. It is a unintelligent remark for Mr Tulloch to make because as he later says "you need to get the last war over before you start the next." but Jim clutches onto that thought and wants to reserve a room for his parents in Lunghua. Even after being taken back to Shanghai by the Bandits, he once again returns to Lunghua to try and restore the camp

I think Jims perception on war throughout the play changes, and that change shows how he matures. At first he doesn't really know what war will be like but he dreams of it and when it arrives he wants it to end. But as Jim grows up in the presence of war he doesn't want it to end and wants the next one to begin, because he cannot remember his childhood without war.