Journal 4 from Krosbi Clark

1.) A scene that I feel is important in chapter fourteen is when the soldiers practiced killing the prisoners. Beah dramatized this to show how the government soldiers brash washed them to kill. The government soldiers made the killings seem like the boys are doing this for their families, made them feel that they were doing the right thing. The government soldiers are supposedly the ‘good guys’, but turns out they’re just as bad as the rebels. The lieutenant lined up all the boy soldiers they had to practice killing prisoners they captured. The lieutenant made it a game for the boy soldiers such as the person who kills their prisoner the fastest wins. The boys didn’t care for the prisoners, especially Beah, they just wanted to win the game. This scene also shows how Beah has changed drastically as a person. He went from being an innocent boy trying to survive the war to being a murderer without sympathy. “I didn’t feel a thing for him, didn’t think that much about what I was doing. I just waited for the corporal’s order” (Beah 124). This demonstrates that the boys will do anything the government soldiers say, and that Beah has changed as a person. This scene made me question myself such as what would I do if I was put in this situation. What situation would push me to go against my morality.

2.) Beah has changed dramatically from chapter twelve through chapter fifteen because of brainwashing from the soldiers, from the loss of his family, and his first kill. He let himself become a killer because he was made to because of the government soldiers brainwashing all the boys. The government soldiers would tell them they need to fight for revenge. “This is your time to revenge the deaths of your families” (Beah 106). This is a manipulative way the soldiers knew would work on the boys because they all have lost loved ones from the rebels. With the recent loss of Beah’s family, he is willing to get revenge for his family. “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family” (Beah 122). Beah killed a man for the first time during a fight and felt nothing. Beah having his first kill was a major event that changed him. He felt powerful and it gave him peace for his family deaths. “I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them” (Beah 119).