Upon reading the first half of Beasts of No Nation I found myself appalled and disgusted by such violence and gore. It is a heartbreaking read, especially when reminded that this is reality, not fiction. One passage I found to be particularly raw reads as such: “You are not my mother, I am saying to the girl’s mother and then I am raising my knife high above my head. I am liking the sound of knife chopping KPWUDA KPWUDA on her head and how the blood is just splashing on my hand and my face and my feets. I am chopping and chopping and chopping until I am looking up and it is dark” (51). After reading this, I questioned the necessity of such a brutal description of the kill. However, I came to the conclusion that no other description would do. In order to raise awareness to the issue of child soldiers, it is impossible to make light of the situation.
I recently had a conversation with a very conservative friend of mine. She suggested on the issue of Darfur, for example, that Americans should not be providing aid there because we have fundamental issues on our own soil to deal with. I brought to her attention that in countries less advanced than the United States, where government is non-existent and wealth is limited, the innocent people have no way of gaining relief from their plight, whatever it may be. My friend was not swayed to change her mind and is unfortunately very naïve to the issues outside of the United States. Perhaps I should lend my friend this book once I finish…
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