These were gruesome chapters. I think the "child" language used by Iweala makes the killings even more jarring than the violence and savagery of using a machete to kill a man. Particularly chilling is the description of the feelings, "He is annoying me and I am bringing the machete up and down and up and down hearing KPWUDA KPWUDA every time and seeing just pink while I am hearing the laughing KEHI, KEHI, KEHI all around me" (21). Agu must be around 7-8, maybe younger, at this time. The fear and loneliness were easy to portray for a boy just kidnapped by a rebel army, but that kind of coldheartedness imbued in just a few days was viciously intelligence. Hearing his intelligence in school and playing soccer with his best friend, Dike, seems to further underscore the tragic loss of innocence in these child soldiers.
The question I am wrestling with now, is can Agu be held accountable for this murder? He even struggles with it when he thinks "I am not bad boy. I am soldier and soldier is not bad if he is killing" (23). This reminds me of Huck Finn on the raft with Jim when he makes his declaration to "go to hell" if that means saving Jim from going back into slavery. Agu's conscience is obviously bothering him, but he would be killed if he doesn't kill. That seems an impossible position to put such a young child in who barely knows the difference between right and wrong.
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