Week 4 post 2

For my second post I will be talking about the 12th chapter of Brothers of the Gun. In this chapter we see Marwan experience the tragedy of violence that all of his students see. Growing up in a war torn city like Syria has its costs, especially on the youth. He talks about how he sees the violence impact his students, and his efforts to distract them from this violence. “I now hated teaching kids a language that had beaten me for years. My only consolation was the voice in my head that told me it was a good thing to do, a way to maintain something of the sacred normality of life, a strategy in this madness to save their future.” (Brothers of the Gun (p. 118).) This quote shows his efforts, and reasoning for him being a teacher. He not only wanted to maintain normality in his life but in the lives of his students. School is the one place where they were in a somewhat normal world. Outside of school they were surrounded by bullets, bombs, and murder. This moment spoke to me as it showed how much he cared for the youth of Syria, and that he would go through all of this mental torture for them.