Paul continues reflecting on his childhood. He reiterates how deeply his generation has been fractured by the events of the war.
This description returns to the paradox of the soldiers’ age, as once more Paul references both their youthful qualities and their burdens of experience. That they are “forlorn like children” speaks to a juvenile helplessness and despondency in the face of the war, while being “experienced like old men” affirms both the wisdom and the trauma they have gained while serving. Extending the contrasting terms, Paul says they, “are crude and sorrowful and superficial”: a combination of grizzled, deep…