chapter 14

Ishmael’s migraines stop as his daily activities are replaced with more soldiering. He takes turns as the guard posts around the village and becomes addicted to marijuana, cocaine and white capsules. When he first takes these drugs in combination, he acts in a more than bizarre manner, but eventually, he comes to feel only numbness to everything and so much energy that he can’t sleep for weeks. He and the other boys watch war and commando movies when they aren’t raiding rebel camps and attacking civilian villages to capture recruits. The idea of death never crosses his mind during this time and killing becomes as easy as drinking water. His mind had snapped with that first killing, and it caused him to feel no remorse for what he does. On a typical raid, Ishmael and the boys surround a rebel camp and wait for the lieutenant’s command. Ishmael gets angrier and angrier as he comes to believe that these look just like the rebels who killed his family and played cards in the ruins of the village.This chapter is very graphic in explaining the life Ishmael has come to live a life that is filled with actual violence, drugs, and death