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verandah (noun)
A roofed platform along the outside of a house, level with the ground floor.

"He sat on the verandah of a house in the middle of the village" (56).

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"He was about five years old and was enjoying the corn that he held in both hands, taking turns biting each ear. We didn't say a word or even look at each other. Rather, we rushed the boy at the same time, and before we knew what was happening, we had taken the corn from him" (30).

This event takes place not long after Ishmael and his friends fled their village. Despite this, Ishmael and is already extremely hungry, and this is shown by the fact that they were forced to steal a younger boy's food in order to avoid starvation. The act of all the boys taking the corn from the child at the same time shows how desperate they were been for food, as they did not need more than an instinctual need for nourishment to know that they needed to steal the food from the boy in order to survive. This is an important passage as it shows that people were forced to turn on one another simply in order to survive, and I think this idea sums up the situation the boys were experiencing.

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"'Everyone ran when they heard of the 'seven boys' on their way here. I couldn't run at all. So they left me behind. No one was willing to carry me and I didn't want to be a burden,' he said.
We explained to him where we were from and where we wanted to go. He asked us to stay for a while and keep us company" (56).

In this passage, Ishmael recalls a memory after he had arrived to a village during his journey to safety. The people of the village had heard of the news of Ishmael and his friends approaching the village and had fled under the impression that they were mercenaries or rebels, but had left behind an old man who was unable to escape. This passage struck me as powerful as it shows the desperation that people in Sierra Leone were pushed to - people fled their homes and left behind an elder in order to escape even a small threat. So much trust had been lost between themselves and their fellow people: even something as seemingly harmless as a small group of young boys was now seen as enough to warrant panicking, and understandably so, as they had likely seen innocent people killed by people similar to Ishmael.

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Whenever I look at the news, it's not uncommon for me to see that there is a violent war going on somewhere in the world - usually within an African/Middle Eastern country between rebels and that nation's government. After seeing dozens of articles and news stories of these raging wars: "60 dead in Syrian suicide bombing", "100+ killed in village raid in Nigeria" and so on, it's very easy to lose sight of the fact that these are real people just like myself who are being murdered in these conflicts and not just some statistic. I think it is important for me and everyone else to read a personal perspective of a war in order to see the reality of war and in order to realize that these are real people who are being killed. By realizing that there are people behind these statistics, people will take wars more seriously and think twice when voting for officials or policies which are pro-war.

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cassava (noun)
A woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family

"The other villages made cassava leaves with meat, potato leaves, and so on" (74).

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"'How many times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?' he asked.
He waited for a few minutes, but the three of us didn't say anything. He continued: 'Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you'" (70).

This quote from one of Ishmael's friends, Saidu, during his escape, really struck me when I read it. When I think of war, I tend not to think of what an intense psychological impact it can have of the citizens caught in the middle, but instead of the physical impact it has. Often when the news is reporting on a war, they strictly stick to the numbers: how many people have been displaced, how many people have died, and other quantifiable statistics. They likely stick to this cut-and-dry reporting in order to remain as impartial as possible to avoid criticism, however, due to the fact that they do this, the personal perspectives of war are never seen by the general public (including myself). After reading that such a powerful and eloquent statement was made  during the war by such a young boy who was forced to go through this, it showed me that there is an entirely different side of war that we don't see in the news or anywhere else in general media - the side with people in it. This is why this quote stood out to me, and why I think moments like these should be shared with the public more often.

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"Saidu sat in the attic, holding his breath and listening to the wailing of his sisters as the rebels raped them. His father shouted at them to stop, and one of the rebels hit him with the butt of his gun. Saidu's mother cried and apologized to her daughters for having brought them into this world to be victims of such madness"..."'I climbed down after the rebels were gone, I couldn't stand and my tears froze in my eyes. I felt like my veins were being harshly pulled from my body. I still feel like that all the time, and I can't stop thinking about that day. What did my sisters do to anyone?'" (80).

This quote was definitely one of the most personally impactful things I have read in the book so far. When Saidu is talking about how his innocent sisters were raped and his family was stripped from him with nothing he could do but listen, it made me just as angry as it did sad - especially with the knowledge that this is a true story and ones just like this are occurring every day around the world. I am angry that there are so many people like this out in the world who actually believe that they are doing good for their nations. They destroy families, kill children, and throw nations into panic under their false justifications and worthless political movements. What good is a political movement when you slaughter and rape those who you want to receive power over?

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migraine (noun)
A headache of varying intensity, often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.

In the of the story, the word is used in the context of a traumatic /emotional pain rather than a physical pain.

"Leslie came to see me. He asked how I was doing and what I had been up to. I wanted to tell him that I had one severe migraine wherein the image of a burning village flashed in my mind..." (184).

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"We walked around the village and killed everyone who came out of houses and huts. Afterward, we realized that there was no one to carry the loads. We had killed everyone" (144).

This quote, although short and seemingly insignificant, proved to be a very important turning point of the story to me. At the beginning of the war, Ishmael could not even comprehend the idea of war, saying that he didn't believe it was "real" until it had come to his village. This quote shows a stark turning point of his character: now, after him and his comrades had massacred a village, nothing more comes out of him than an almost sarcastic "We had killed everyone".

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"'You are my son. I don't have much, but I will give you a place to sleep, food, and my love.' He put his arms around me.
No one had called me son in a very long time. I didn't know what to say."

This quotes comes from near the end of the book, and it shows Ishmael being severely emotionally struck by his relative calling him "son". It shows that Beah had not experienced love in a long time, and I think that this is a very important turning point of Beah's character. When contrasted with the previous passage where Beah had helped kill a village full of people without emotion, these two scenes seem like night and day despite them being close to each other both in the book and in real life. After Beah had received love and was reunited with his family member,