How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
My face, my hands, my shirt and gun were covered with blood. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, and I killed a man. Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head. Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my two young lifeless friends, I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people. I shot everything that moved, until we were ordered to retreat because we needed another strategy. (13.13)
Ishmael has seen a lot of dead bodies in this war, but he's never killed anyone himself until this battle. Once he crosses this line, something snaps and he keeps killing. He seems to think that it was at this moment that he stopped being a person and turned into a killing machine.
Quote #8
I didn't feel a thing for him, didn't think that much about what I was doing. I just waited for the corporal's order. The prisoner was simply another rebel who was responsible for the death of my family, as I had come to truly believe. The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man's head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam's apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out. His eyes rolled up and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance, as if caught by surprise. The prisoner leaned his weight on me as he gave out his last breath. I dropped him on the ground and wiped my bayonet on him. I reported to the corporal, who was holding a timer. The bodies of the other prisoners fought in the arms of the other boys, and some continued to shake on the ground for a while. I was proclaimed the winner. (14.13)
Ishmael is clearly the "winner" here though we're not sure what the prize is. This is a terrifying scene that shows us just how horrifically the war has affected our author. He once cried for the victims of the war; now he feels nothing.
Quote #9
The villages that we captured and turned into our bases as we went along and the forests that we slept in became my home. My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. The extent of my thoughts didn't go much beyond that. We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone. My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen. I knew that day and night came and went because of the presence of the moon and the sun, but I had no idea whether it was a Sunday or a Friday. (15.1)
This pretty much sums up Ishmael's time in the military. The war has totally obliterated any normal ideas. He doesn't even know what day of the week it is. What would it matter? Any day is a good day for killing when you're in combat.