What It Means To Be A Survivor?

What It Means To Be A Survivor?

 In the aftermath of finding a home in the Pinyudo Refugee Camp the boys (Jacob, Willy, Monyroor and Oscar) find out that there are many flaws and perks of being a survivor during the war and all the lack of necessities that are not present because of the war. On page 123, we are told that the boys and all that live in the camp have been separated into seven zones. This means that the boys who are still alive are apart of one of these groups. Once someone has passed away they become part of zone eight. Once every Sunday one of the groups selects members to dispose of the bodies so that vultures do not come near the camp. We can speculate that life for the boys, even though they are alive, is tough. Not only have these boys had to leave everything behind, but they have lost everything and have the traumatic experience of having to move human bodies. 

To me this scene is significant in itself as it makes us feel for those poor boys. Like I stated before these boys have had to deal with so much and now they have to deal with this as well. To me being a survivor of the war that the boys have had to go through so many challenges that no person let alone a child should have to go through. As we also go through this chapter (chapter 13) we see that some of the boys like Mojak, are hesitant and don't want to have to deal with the dead bodies. I can see that the boys are indeed living, but being a survivor has to be a pretty miserable thing. In the story we later see that the camp is attacked and that the boys have had to live with the fact that they could be attacked at anytime or be killed in the blink of an eye. The boys since being left alone in the world have had to witness Adam one of their supposed protectors beat up Matthew their teacher (136,137). The boys at every turn have saw every shred of the expected destroyed. The men in the book were supposed to protect the boys and fight for Sudan, but all the power that's supposed to be used for protection is used to inflict pain and power on others who are weaker. To me being a survivor in this story is stated like this. They may be alive, but this is a life no one should have to go through and they aren’t truly living.