Voice, especially first person, often reveals a character's connection to their experiences in a text, but it is the variations in voice that determine the identity of the character. in these texts. Literary texts that deal with childhood abuse often involve the exploration of these different characters' voices, as they provide insight into the effects of the environment on the characters. Chris Abani's novel GraceLand and the film Beasts of No Nation are based on violent topics such as rape, war, and child soldiers; when these topics are expressed by different voices, the result can be powerfully moving and reveal much about the meaning (power? weakness?) of children's innocence in these contexts. In the Netflix original film Beasts of No Nation, directed by Cary Fukunaga, the main character Agu, a young boy from an unnamed African country, is forced to join a rebel group made up of child soldiers. As the war progresses and Agu is faced with more and more opportunities to die, his relationship with his friend Strika and his leader, the Commander, begins to weigh more and more heavily on his conscience and his will to survive. survive. In Abani's GraceLand, the main character Elvis lives in Lagos, Nigeria, a rundown city in rapid physical and community deterioration. Elvis struggles to become manly in a changing society that pushes him to follow and accept the environment into which he is forced. Fukunaga and Abani's characters display their naivety and lack of awareness of their situation through opposing means; Agu does this through internal dialogue, while Elvis literally expresses his concern over his lack of knowledge of the world around him. Fukunaga and Abani achieve emotional depictions of the character's story of hardship and maturity through their character's different forms of expression and thought. Comparing this text and the film sparks a discussion about two violent environments and their impact on the two main characters. Analysis of Agu's internal dialogue and Elvis' vocal actions raises the question of how, when, and why boys choose to express their emotions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The use of internal dialogue to describe Agu's thoughts and feelings about what is happening around him is a surprisingly jarring mix of ambiguity and transparency. The ambiguity lies in the many silences during the film's most intense scenes, as shown in the scene where Agu is first ordered by the commander to kill a man, who claims to be an innocent engineering student. During the commander's entire explanation of how to kill the man, as well as during the moment when Agu performs the act, Agu does not share any thoughts with the audience. The film itself has white noise in the background, with the commander's orders barely audible. Agu seems to push away his own thoughts in a time where he is brainwashed or forced to do something due to his lack of control over his own life. He rejects his power as a human being to have ideas because he realizes that he no longer achieves this power: his ideas have become useless to himself as well as to others and he is simply used as a pawn in a larger political issue. Although Agu appears fascinated by killing the man, Agu's actions prove to be forced by the commander's provocative words as he stands over him: "Remember what they took you.Remember your pain and turn it into hatred for them. A mentally traumatic situation like this is clearly beyond Agu's control and capacity to understand, thus explaining his lack of thinking and excess action, as well as proving his innocence in these situations. His silence during the serious/horrible/horrible events in which he is involved leaves the audience with no idea of ​​what they might possibly think or feel in those moments. Scenes like these that essentially cut viewers off from Agu's mental state, leaving it ambiguous, foreshadow one of the film's final scenes, where Agu is placed in a therapy session with social worker Amy. Amy pushes Agu to talk about his experiences as a child soldier, only to have him sit in silence, and the audience is ultimately open to her explanation for his silence: "She thinks I don't talk because I can't not explain myself as a baby... but I'm not like a baby, I'm like an old man and she's like a little girl, because I'm fighting in a war and she doesn't even know what it is. is voiceover, only allowing the audience to hear Amy pushing Agu to tell her about his feelings, alongside the audience's desire for Agu to reveal these same elements verbally. but his ability to clarify his feelings to the audience through internal dialogue reveals that the war was not the only reason why Agu remained silent throughout the film. Agu cannot understand the concept of discussing the past with others. others, because he cannot understand his past enough to even discuss it with himself. Unlike Agu, Elvis physically expresses his worries and confusion about these situations, rather than internalizing them; he looks to others for clarity and seeks the truth about the situations in which he finds himself. One of the novel's opening scenes features Elvis at age 5, participating in a traditional ceremony in which a young boy becomes a man. The ceremony includes the killing of a baby eagle by the boy and, with the permission of the village elders, he is proclaimed "man". Unfortunately for Elvis, a lack of resources and the diminishing spirit of traditionalism in his community forced his ceremony to consist of a pre-killed chick. Elvis, naive about the importance of the ceremony, asks his father and uncle multiple questions: “What is happening? “But why must I kill an eagle?” “Is this an eagle chick?” And even questions his father after claiming that Elvis killed the girl, "I didn't do it", to which his father replies "You did". The overflow of inquiries from Elvis illustrates how Elvis is incapable of understanding what the purposes of the ceremony are. Similar to Agu's first experience with murder, Elvis only performs the ceremony because he is driven to do so by forces greater than himself, and both characters are in an environment where they must submit to these forces simply because their society is organized that way. . Elvis's questioning of his society is due to the similar feeling Agu experiences, where he is brainwashed by people, like his father and elders, into believing that "tradition" continues and that purpose of the next generation is to continue this. rather than forming their own thoughts and ideas about them. The continuation of Elvis's frank questioning foreshadows the failure of the society in which it is increasingly prevalent, where the verbalization of new ideas and the creation of conversations about them are increasingly prevalent. The feeling of not understanding the life you live in is unsettling and, inespecially for children. , is an essential part of discovering who you are as a person and what role you will play in life: what voice you will have in society. Elvis struggles with this throughout GraceLand and while Agu is given a "purpose" in his life (to be a soldier) and chooses an internal dialogue to accompany this new life he has been thrust into, Elvis has more having trouble identifying what voice he has. wants to have, and instead imitates those who are similar to other characters in the novel such as the king, his mentor. Elvis is part of a society that does not physically choose the "destiny" of others, as in Agu's world, but it subliminally pressures people, especially men, to fall into certain categories, and Elvis feels this sneaky pressure throughout the novel, when two important figures in his life, the King and Redemption, have opposing ideas about how he should participate in society. Elvis' mentor, the neighborhood beggar King, plays an influential role in this dilemma. In a bar, Elvis listens to the king give a speech about politics and the need to overthrow the current government. Elvis is amazed by the delivery of the king's speech, but finds himself getting distracted by the music playing nearby. This proves that he focuses more on the theatricality of the king's speech and views it as a performance rather than an attempt at political revolution. The King's attitude in this context, frank and self-confident, may be a contribution to Elvis's outspoken tendencies, as is his way of emulating the kind of man he wants to be seen as. This attitude is tested every time he comes into contact with his friend Redemption, who is the complete opposite of Elvis in that he does not want to flesh out the truth of situations and prefers to turn a blind eye to them. entirely. When Redemption offered Elvis the opportunity to take part in a sketchy job offered as an "escort" by even sketchier drug dealers, Elvis was doubtful about accepting the job due to the lack of information given to him about it. . Elvis said to him, "Why should I trust you when you want me to take a risk without telling me the whole story?" ", to which Redemption responds: "Only a dead man tells everything, only a fool asks. This response catalyzes a full-blown argument between the two friends and is solid evidence that Elvis clearly wants to be conscious and in control of his life, as the King is trying to teach him (and attempts to do by expressing his concerns in a theatrical manner). , but he is held back by people in his society who live their lives making blind decisions to deal with the violence in the city where they reside. Agu's filtering of bad situations exclusive to him through internal dialogue, unlike Elvis, who only digests and speaks out on dangerous or bad situations in which he is uniquely involved. He discovers this about himself when Redemption exposes this trait, after Elvis expresses concern about his cousin, whom he has not spoken about in years. , but he only remembers her when he sees a woman who looks like her: "Say Elvis, you are very selfish... When it concerns you, nothing is true... Instead, you try to behave as if no one can understand you. .” Redemption describes Elvis's individualistic mentality as "selfish", but Elvis continues to use this mentality as a way to deal with the difficult decisions he must make. Agu's character seems to be on the opposite end of the spectrum, with little to no thoughts regarding him specifically. This could be a combination of the fact that his deadly "job" as a child soldier does not allow him to believe that in.