Pages 33-52

In the discussion in class, we came up with a pretty good synopsis and analysis of this part of Beasts of No Nation. In the beginning of the chapter, we could tell that Agu was having difficulty dealing with the mental and physical agony of being a soldier. We all came to an agreement that having a child soldier is unacceptable and should be forbidden. We also saw that the reason why Strika doesn't speak is because his parents were killed by the soldiers. We thought that this could possibly be foreshadowing and might happen to Agu. I brought up an interesting point to the group. At the end of the chapter, the author, Uzodinma Iweala, writes "Strika is pulling down his short and showing that he is man to this woman while I am holding her one leg and another soldier is holding another." This might show that not only did the soldiers loot and kill, but they also raped women and children. We also talked about the ox and the leopard at the end of the chapter. Connor came up with the idea that maybe this shows how the African people fight family each and everyday. I tried to work on listening to others and not taking up all the speaking time. It worked out nicely and I found that Dylan and Emily had really excellent points.