Journal 4: Taylor

          A scene I thought was important was in chapter 14, page 124. It was the scene that the five boys picked had to "practice" killing the prisoners. I thought this was an important scene for the writer to dramatize because it continued to reveal that he is not this innocent, young boy anymore. A good direct quote from this scene, "I didn't feel a thing for him, didn't think much about what I was doing. I just waited for the corporal's order. The prisoner was simply another rebel who was responsible for the death of my family, as I had come to truly believe." At first reading this passage made me angry and disappointed. They chose 5 people to be practice for murder. 5 human beings. Then reading Beah's quote from above I became even more angry as he said he didn't feel a thing for him. I then took a second and put myself in Beah's shoes and became empathetic for him once again. He was brainwashed and trained to do anything the corporal says to do and it was easy for him to believe that every rebel was responsible for the death of his family. 

          The transformation of Beah throughout chapters 12-15 does not change my perception of him much. The things that he explains he did are very hard to read and hard to understand so I think it's important to put yourself in his shoes. He is a very young boy who is still deep down innocent and during the time he did not know any better. As a reader you can see that all the young boys were brainwashed into becoming what they are. Beah's whole family was murdered during this war. He's angry, lost, and afraid. Along with having to deal with the death of his family, he has also witnessed his friends die right beside him. So in the end, how else would you expect a boy his age to react when the war is all around him and soldiers are influencing him?