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Summary: Chapter 8
Ishmael walks for two days without sleeping. His mind is filled with the terrible things he has witnessed: corpses with eyes full of fear, mutilated human heads, and rivers running with blood. On the third day, Ismael gets lost deep in a forest, but fortunately, he has found a place with a water source and wild fruit trees. Ismael lives there for a month, getting used to the snakes and other animals, and feeling lonely, and tormented by sadness and concern for his family and friends. Ismael has come to feel somewhat at home in the forest, but after an encounter with wild boars, he tries again to find his way out. He draws strength from his father’s words: “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day.”
Finally, Ishmael meets six other boys in the forest. Three of them once attended school with him in Mattru Jong. Ishmael joins the group, which is headed for Yele, a coastal town reportedly controlled by government troops. Villagers who have heard rumors about a band of seven boys avoid the group or keep a watchful, hostile eye on them. At one village, everyone except an old man flees. The man shares a meal with the boys, then gives them directions to Yele and urges them to be on their way for their own safety.
Summary: Chapter 9
The seven boys reach the ocean. They enjoy its beauty, but at the next village they are taken captive by fishermen. After questioning the boys and taking their shoes, the fishermen drive the boys away from the village at spearpoint. Because the dropoff to the ocean is too steep for the boys to walk near the water, they must walk on hot sand and soon burn their feet. At sunset, they take shelter in a fishing hut. The owner, a young man, recognizes that the boys are harmless and cares for them. Two weeks later, however, the villagers learn of the boys’ presence, and they are captured and taken to the chief. He intends to have them thrown into the pounding ocean surf to die, but like the earlier chief, he is curious about the cassette tape in Ishmael’s pocket. Hearing the music and Ishmael’s story, the chief asks for a dance demonstration. He quickly decides that the boys are harmless, but he orders them to leave the area immediately.
Analysis: Chapters 8–9
Ishmael’s solo reflections on the horrors of war he has experienced so far introduces the reader to his coming transformation as a major theme in the narrative. He continues to relive happy childhood memories in this lonely time, but Ishmael’s new, cynical perspective seeps into this nostalgic view of his childhood. He recalls a story told to him by his grandmother about a pig hunter who uses magic to turn himself into a boar to hunt. One day the hunter is no longer able to become human again, hinting metaphorically that war changes people forever. Ishmael still clings to his humanity, but he is beginning to realize that he will be permanently transformed by his experiences and no longer able to return to the innocence of his childhood.
The dangerous snakes Ishmael encounters in the forest represent the dangers he faces in war. He reacts fearfully upon seeing one, but when another snake appears, he seems resigned to living among the snakes and the other dangerous animals of the forest. This shows that Ishmael is beginning to accept the reality of the horrible war that is happening all around him. His fear of the snakes turns into a kind of morbid acceptance. When Ishmael accidentally steps on the tail of another snake, he is reminded of a folk remedy, his grandfather’s cure for snakebites. However, Ishmael doubts that this cure really works, further showing how he no longer feels protected from the dangerous world around him.
When Ishmael finally finds and allies himself to a group of other lost boys, the optimistic words of his father, along with this new alliance in the forest once more brings up the family motif. These lost boys, each from a different tribe and unable to go home, serve as Ishmael’s surrogate family for a time. The varying tribal affiliations of the boys shows how loss of community and family causes people to assemble in new groups for support. As the boys travel through their war-torn country looking for food and safety, the old man they meet serves as another sort of surrogate family member, giving the boys food and wise guidance. The old man has been left behind when the rest of the village fled, and perhaps because of this isolation, he comforts the boys as if they were his own family.
When the boys reach the Atlantic Ocean, the theme of their innocence floods back into the narrative. They show childlike wonder at the sight and sound of the sea. It almost seems as if their innocence has been regained, but Ishmael and the boys are not safe here either. The use of child soldiers in this war has tainted their innocence in each war-torn community they find, and the boys are feared. When fishermen take the boys’ shoes and chase them away, their happiness at reaching the ocean turns to great pain from the injuries the sand inflicts on their bare feet. These fishermen fear the boys and feel threatened, unable to see their innocence. A different fisherman lets the boys use his fishing hut to recover from their injuries, but when a local chief learns that the boys are in the area, they are threatened once again. Ishmael and the boys are spared by the rap cassettes for a second time, a symbolic reminder to all that Ishmael is still an innocent child despite his awful circumstances.
