“I was a lover, before this war
held up in a luxury suite, behind a barricaded door
now that I've cleaned up, gone legit
I can see clearly: round hole
round whole, square peg don't fit”
These lyrics symbolize how the boys were affected by witnessing the genocide of their people. Growing up with elders to protect and nurture them is represented by” held up in a luxury suite, behind a barricaded door”, while the most profound verse “I was a lover, before this war” represents the transformation these boy had undergone, one which left them dull and desperate. There are so many examples of the boys becoming more like the people they found themselves surrounded by, but my favorite is Alphoes shift in attitude towards guns. When he was far younger, he pretended to be a soldier with his friends, aiming a stick as if it were a gun. His mother happened to see this and struck him for even pretending to have a gun, let alone think about them. She explained that they were no gun and little boys shouldn’t pretend to be soldiers, and he took her words to heart.
This would change a little over two years later, after the boys had traveled from camp to camp, witnessing human suffering every place they arrived, having a gun to protect t you, or take what you wanted didn’t seem like such a bad idea. After being beaten randomly and stolen from enough, any peaceful bone you once had is liable to be broken, allowing the dark side of humanity to seize such moments and surface. I find this to be an unavoidable truth as watch things like this happen in communities surrounding my own home. When I lived on the west side, we were all raised to detest guns and no matter what the circumstance, a gun was not the answer, but by the time I moved away in the fifth grade, most of the older kids had already had guns of their own.
This wasn’t because they were a bunch of rebel soldiers, but because it’s a necessary precaution in some parts of the world. For those who don’t want someone taking the food out of their mouths, or the shoes they worked for, a gun provides a “No” that can’t be ignored. I myself don’t think guns are for everywhere, but I definitely find them necessary on some places.
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