My grandmother once told me a story about a notorious hunter of wild pigs who used magic to transform himself into a wild boar. He would then lead the herd into an open area of the forest where he would change back into human form, then trap and shoot the pigs.

This passage appears in Chapter 8 when Ishmael is alone in the forest. He remembers that the pig hunter in the story uses magic to change himself into a pig so that he can lure the pigs to their death, and then he changes back into a human. However, eventually the pigs outsmart the hunter and he is no longer able to change back into a human again. This story seems to metaphorically show that people can switch back and forth between their humanity and the violence of war for a time, but eventually war changes people forever. In this part of the story, Ishmael still clings to his humanity, as he is not yet a child soldier. However, the story of the pig hunter foreshadows that Ishmael will be permanently transformed by his experiences during war, and eventually he will no longer be able to return to the innocence of his childhood.

I felt nauseated. Everything began to spin around me. One of the soldiers was looking at me, chewing something and smiling. He took a drink from his water bottle and threw the remaining water at my face. "You will get used to it, everybody does eventually," he said.

This passage at the beginning of Chapter 12 marks the very beginning of Ishmael’s transformation into a child soldier. The boys have just been captured by a group of men with guns. Ishmael describes witnessing a gruesome scene where one man is dead, his insides spilling on the ground, and another man still breathing even though his head is smashed in. Unsurprisingly, Ishmael’s reaction to the scene is to feel disoriented and sick. Ishmael is still a child. In contrast, the soldier is smiling. The soldier may very well be a child, too. Although Ishmael’s training as a child soldier will come later, witnessing this carnage begins the path of desensitization that will lead to his transformation. As far as the military is concerned, this desensitization is necessary for children to be able to carry out the duties of war. The soldier’s words, in which he tells Ishmael that he will get used to scenes like these, foretell Ishmael’s future.

"They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them. Think of it as destroying a great evil. It is the highest service you can perform for your country."

In this passage from Chapter 12, the lieutenant is explaining to everyone in the camp that they should kill the rebels because the rebels are no longer human. His argument is that the rebels do not deserve to live because they have been transformed into something distinctly inhuman, something evil. The lieutenant needs to transform the rebels into less than human in the minds of the child soldiers so they will be willing and able to kill them. The lieutenant’s speech is also a rallying cry. It is meant to transform the people in camp from helpless victims of war into patriots who have the power to fight evil in service to their country. It’s ironic that the lieutenant characterizes the rebels as inhuman when it is the military, with their capacity for violence and propensity to employ child soldiers, that lacks humanity.

I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.

This passage from Chapter 13 shows that Ishmael has been fully transformed by war. He is no longer an innocent child, but rather a ruthless soldier. Earlier in the chapter, Ishmael is afraid to go into battle and he has a difficult time using his gun. But after witnessing the death of his friend Josiah, Ishmael’s fear is gone. He is now able to shoot and kill other people. Ishmael’s description of the dead soldiers as “lifeless bodies” shows that he no longer sees the people he’s killed as human. His violent treatment of the bodies as he’s searching them for valuables is different from the way we’ve seen Ishmael behave toward others in the past. He even says that he despises them, a sentiment he hasn’t had for others in the story up until now, indicating that the military’s coercion has succeeded.