Im stuck on this one theme darrow uses in this text is that “dreams and illusions of childhood” are often more real to young people than reality is. why is this theme important in this text? he suggests that leopold and loeb were influenced by unrealistic dreams, which makes them sound younger and less threatening; this can him persuade the judge to give them less severe sentences. he describes how leopold and loeb used their daydreams to survive in their abusive families; this allows him to emphasize how their abusive childhoods shaped leopold and loeb as teenagers. darrow emphasizes illusions because he plans to argue that the boys were on drugs; this would justify their actions as they did not realize what they were doing. darrow plans to use psychological evidence to demonstrate how young people engage in magical thinking; this will his argument that the boys are not responsible for their choices.