What are the motifs in The Fighting Ground by Avi (Avi Wortis)?

Romanticism of war is a recurring idea.Thirteen-year-old Jonathan, the hero of the story, The Fighting Ground, daydreams about going off to war. He wants to be a soldier, a hero who would fight for the American cause in the American Revolutionary War. His father was badly injured in the war—his leg was lame. Jonathan's older brother had joined the army a year before and has not been heard from since. Jonathan saw fear in his father's eyes which he took as a sign of weakness. But Jonathan was not afraid—he would be a brave fighter and perhaps a better soldier than his brother or father.