Question

Richie had felt a mad, exhilarating kind of energy growing in the room. . . . He thought he recognized the feeling from his childhood, when he felt it everyday and had come to take it merely as a matter of course. He supposed that, if he had ever thought about that deep-running aquifer of energy as a kid (he could not recall that he ever had), he would have simply dismissed it as a fact of life, something that would always be there, like the color of his eyes . . . .
Well, that hadn't turned out to be true. The energy you drew on so extravagantly when you were a kid, the energy you thought would never exhaust itself—that slipped away somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four, to be replaced by something much duller . . . purpose, maybe, or goals . . . .

Source: King, Stephen. It. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print.



Which theme would be advanced by the tone in the above passage best?

Despite age and experience, some people never grow up.
Childhood has a magical quality that slips away.
Don't take childhood for granted.
Children should be given the chance to expand their vast energy.

Answer 1

It's childhood has a magical quality that slips away. 

Answer 2

Don't take childhood for granted.I would say this is the main message in the above passage that parents should inculcate in their kids to enjoy their energy and be aware that they will not always have it and that life changes and tends to become much more sober as we get older but at the same time not to think that old age necessarily means life comes to an end especially when we preserve a child-like wonder in the world all our lives.