Bombs Away!

The significance of the conflict in the book is described well in chapter 17 (pg. 165-168). Conflict is shown during this short chapter when the long centipede of humans is being bombed by the Northern Government. The significance of conflict is very important because it destroys the little hope all the Sudan boys might of had. As a group the Sudan boys are a lot stronger than if they were alone or in small groups. In small groups the sudan boys are not as intimidating as they would be in a large group. Also in a large group they would be able to keep fighting and walking because they have many people encouraging them. When the bombs hit this destroyed hope for the boys and it killed most of the group. They would no longer have the intimidation to help scare off animals or small groups of soldiers. Like Matthew said earlier if they would've talked in person instead of using violence they could have agreed to become slaves or prisoners instead of losing so many people from violence. If you were given the choice instead of being bombed, would you become a slave or prisoner to save your life? This chapter shows how well agreeing through communication can be then using violence, which has been brought up by many people throughout the book, such as Jacob's mother, Matthew the elder, Matthew the teacher and Monyroor.

~BW