War Has Many Affects On Humans

"He counts under his breath, hears slow numbers tick in his own voice. When he gets to eight, the hat less mans head bursts, the top of his skull evaporating in a fine red drizzle punctuated by the thunderclap of a rifle echoing down the hill." (Galloway, 136) 


This takes place in the book when when Dragan's friend is shot trying to cross the bridge and a man with a hat runs out to the bridge to rescue her. As he goes to get her he is shot once by a bullet and is knocked over severely injured. As the man crawls back to safety he notices Dragan staring blankly at him as he tries to determine how far apart all of the gunshots are. When Dragan counts to 8 though, the man is hit for a second time and was instantly killed by the second bullet. 

A Not So Funny Joke By Dragan

Dragan: “Why did the Sarajevan cross the road?” he asks Emina. She shakes her head, takes her hands out of her pockets and brushes the hair out of her face. “That’s a good question” Dragan then replies “To get to the other side,” He answers. 

When I first read this I laughed because it incorporated a juvenile, classic joke into Dragans character which showed me he had a sense of humor behind all of the chaos that is taking place. I also found the joke to be a little bit morbid because in the novel when people cross roads, they are referring to the bridges people cross to get to safety and a lot of the time people do not make it because of snipers on the hill.  

What I read today.

Today I read about Arrow's first time guarding the Cellist. I found it interesting because she was fascinated by what the Cellist was doing for the 22 people killed by the bomb that went off in the market. I found it interesting because her first task was to locate the enemy sniper and learn where he would be positioned when trying to kill the Cellist. She had an intrueging process in discovering his where about's. after her work she figured out the enemy would be positioned in a building to the east on the fourth floor. She set up a decoy to try and catch the attention of the enemy and it worked because that is how she learned where he was hiding when he shot the head of the dumby Arrow had set up. After that the enemy got away but Arrow was satisfied because her primary task of protecting the Cellist was accomplished. she then hid in the building she was in until nightfall then made her way home but when she reached the bottom she had a revolation about the flowers that were laid down where the Cellist was playing. The chapter then ended with her accepting she would have to repeat this task until the Cellist was done honouring the dead. From this section of reading, I think i will do my thesis about reverse gender roles because the chpter had alot of support towards my argument in the chapter.

The Cello

Definitely, The Cello is a symbol of peace in this novel. The Cellist plays it for the 22 people who died at the beginning of the book and will play it once a day for 22 days until he plays it for all of the people. When he’s playing he is able to captivate an enemy sniper which allows the enemy to look through the scope of his rifle and just listen to the beauty playing through the instrument. I think that in the story it is just meant to give all of the characters some hope that the city will one day be at peace and it can be restored to how it once was.

A City in Chaos...

I needed to visualize the actual setting of the novel to understand how the characters were living. They were in the middle of a war so when I think of how they are I imagine a city that is burning, with streets filled with rubble and death. I see the city centre where the market would take place and I imagine the massacre that occurred during the beginning of this novel. I can also imagine how people are living, in the slum neighbour hoods filled with debris and destruction. A family struggling for survival eating what they can to survive and hopefully keeping a roof over their heads. It’s a pretty grue something to picture because it is horrifying that stuff like this can happen to people.

Half Way There!

I am officially half way through the book and so far a lot of what’s going on in the book has become interesting. You have learned Arrow’s new objective given to her by the military is to protect the Cellist as he is playing in the street no matter what. You have learned a bit about Kenan and how he has met a few of his friends and discovered some interesting things about the war and how he escaped a near death experience while trying to cross a bridge. And finally, the reader has been taught a few lessons by Dragans character in the novel. All though he is old and does not know much outside of the city he is still a very interesting character who has had many moments that have left him scarred physically and emotionally. I hope to finish the book within the next 2 weeks because I am eager to learn how it ends.