WEEK 5:

In chapter 12 Deng talks about the times he was in the Sudan and he knew a lot of boys that died even if he never actually saw it. I wanted to draw on this recount of his experiences to illustrate how being a child had a great effect on what they were told and what actually happened. In some cases the boys didn't need anyone to tell them that their "brothers" had died, they just knew. Other times the boys were told different things in order to spare their feelings and use their innocence to sugar coat the life style. On page 196 DUT is speaking to the children offering them simple explanations for complicated things that they did not understand. Deng than says to himself "the lies were so exquisite, I almost wept." Thusly Valentino has two different understandings of truth, much in the same way we do as Americans. When a three year old asks you where babies come from, you tell them that they come from the store or the stork brings them anything to simplify and make less graphic for the children. With this also comes the factor of trust. Do you still trust your parents after you find out there is no tooth fairy? The trust between the children and those in power is pretty much unconditional because the children have no other means of survival. Simply because we have no proof of the tooth fairy doesn't mean we don't believe. Im sure when one of the soldiers or the older boys you were walking with told you that whats-his-name wasn't going to wake up, you believed them. And after a while I'm sure the boys felt that this was better. These different understandings of truth do not make me trust the novel any less. In the above mentioned quote Valentino is observing the children being told something in such a way that their feelings will be spared. Is that so wrong? Does that make you a liar?