Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Fowler twice sees a dead child up close, and both occasions bring to him the horror of war and remind him how much he hates it.
They are an image of lost innocence—not the dangerous innocence of Pyle, but the hope of children for a full and meaningful life:
A woman sat on the ground with what was left of her baby in her lap; with a kind of modesty she had covered it with her straw peasant hat. (3.2.2.36)
To soldiers in the field, dead children are a sign of bad luck. "Mal chance," says an officer at the sight of one (1.4.1.46). To the newspapers, dead children are a sensation for a big story. To Pyle, they're young heroes whose deaths will help bring about the greater good. "They were only war casualties," Pyle says in reference to women and children. "They died in the right cause" (4.2.2.63).