Girl At War Summary

The book Girl at War, written by Sarah Nović takes place from the point of view of a naїve, young girl growing up in Croatia during times of civil war. Young Ana is curious and wants to know more about the war. There is something very intriguing about reading a book from the point of view of a youthful child who is so innocent and the reader knows more about the situation than the narrator. Sarah Nović does an exceptional job of keeping the reader aware of the conflicts through the use many literary devices while the reader still can capture the beauty and keep the purity of the ingenuous child, Ana.

The story is told from the point of view of a child growing up in Croatia along with her mother, father and baby sister, Rahela. Ana is hesitant

The effect of Ana narrating the story can help the reader to view war from a child's perspective. For example, Ana feels out of harm's way, however there is an enormous civil war going on around her. Many people feel threatened by the serbs and it is becoming a nationwide problem concerning the safety of many citizens. “Whenever police...spotted serbs approaching the city,a strip of alert text ribboned its way across the top of the television screen.”(22). I also believe the author made Ana the narrator to build on light to a very dark and harsh topic. If any other character in the story was describing the situation to the reader, I feel that the story would be very depressing and would seem to drag on. The book would only be filled with worry and uncertainty. But, by using Ana as the narrator Sarah Nović succeeds to convey a difficult and arduous time to the reader while still keeping a sense of light and innocence. Ana stays hopeful in times others cannot “Sitting on the floor in the dark I wasn’t afraid”(22). Another perk of having Ana as the narrator is that the young girl is uneducated on what is taking place in the world around her. When reading this book, more often than not the reader knows something that the narrator does not, the use of dramatic irony in the story helps to capture the real quality of life during war and bring the story to its most realistic

The secondary characters in the story mostly include Ana’s family and her best friend, Luka. I believe they add depth and character to the story, especially by their behavior. For example, at the beginning of the story when Ana tells her family about the separation between the Croatian and Serbian cigarettes her family reacted very secretly. They were all surprised and shocked by the event, but with their body language, it was simple to say that they should not make a big deal of it because they do not want Ana to question their country's struggles. Her uncle even sat her down on his knee and let her keep the cigarette money to help calm her down and diffuse the situation. This helped me to understand that issues were very tense and talked about in her society. It also helped me to understand how much danger the family is in, because they are trying to remain life as habitually as possible, but their reaction certainly conveys they know trouble is coming sooner or later and for now all they have is hope. Ana’s family supplements the story in a very different way than her best friend, Luka. Luka’s family in from Bosnia, a country not involved in the current conflict. A character like Luka is important to have because he takes no part in the war, and his action clearly conveys less worry and contemplation than Ana. This helps me to understand how alone and terrified people must