Put these Passages in Right Contexts

These are specific quotes from the text, each of which can be effectively used as part of a larger argument because they illustrate what the war was like. These are powerful images, scenes, etc. However, on their own they do not answer our Essay 1 topic. As writers, we have to think about how to use each passage.

First, let's discuss some of the scenes that these are part of, and then develop questions and points about Beah's moral conflicts that these support.  With time, you will re-draft one of your essay points and put one of these passages into context of that revised idea.


Page 69:

• "To survive each passing day was my goal in life."
• "I thought about where my family was and whether they were alive."

Page 80:

• "After the rebels had raped the sisters over and over, they bundled the family's property and made the father and mother carry it. They took the three girls with them."

Page 87:

• "A group of more than ten rebels walked into the village. They were laughing and giving each other high fives. Two looked slightly older than me. They had blood on their clothes, and one of them carried the head of a man, which he held by the hair. The head looked as if it was still feeling its hair being pulled."

Page 107:

• ""This man and this child decided to leave this morning even though I had told them it was dangerous. The man insisted that he didn't want to be part of our war, so I have him his wish and let him go. Look what happened...."

Page 116:

• "A young soldier came by with a plastic bag full of some kind of tablets."

• ""It is better to carry more ammunition than food and water. Because with more ammo, we will be able to find water and food, but with more water and food, we will not make it to the end of the day," the corporal explained."

Page 121:

• "...I took turns at guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread out on the table...."

• "We all wanted to be like Rambo; we couldn't wait to implement his techniques."

Pages 151:

• "It turned out that the bruises were from bullets that had merely torn my flesh as they missed killing me. I was too drugged and traumatized to realize the danger of what had just happened."

Page 153:

• "I had come to believe that people befriended only to exploit one another."

Page 165:

• "It was the first time I had dreamt of my family since I started running away from the war."\

• ""None of these things are your fault," [Esther] would always say sternly at the end of every conversation. ...I began that day to believe it. ...That didn't make me immune from the guilt that I felt for what I had done."