Paul Rusesabagina Character Analysis

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Paul Rusesabagina, despite not complying with the dreadful orders of the Rwandan military and Interahamwe and hiding innocent Tutsi people in his hotel to avoid their demise, believes himself to be an everyday Rwandan man. Previous to the genocide, this is true, and it is Rusesabagina’s background and value of human life that makes him believe so. He explains he is “the son of a Hutu farmer and his Tutsi wife...This type of blended family is typical in Rwanda, even with our long history of racial prejudice” (Rusesabagina). The hotel manager explains that it is not atypical to be mixed of Hutu and Tutsi descent, which literally does make him an average Rwandan, and part of this expectation. But, perhaps because he is mixed, he has sympathy …show more content…

“I used my words in many ways during the genocide -- to plead, intimidate, coax, cajole, and negotiate...I acted friendly toward despicable people...I said whatever I thought it would take to keep the people in my hotel from being killed...Those words were my connection to a saner world, to life as it ought to be lived.” (Rusesabagina). He explains that words are also the cause of the genocide, as the resentment among the Hutus for the Tutsis had built. In these messages in his autobiography, Rusesabagina is trying to convey the idea that words and speech are not tangible things, but everyone has them, and the words themselves are revolutionary. He describes that they can be used for better or for worse, and he was simply one of the few that used them for good and to protect the Tutsis during the genocide. Rusesabagina also says that nothing changed about his job during the genocide: “I built my career on words that are plain and ordinary and concerned with everyday details. I am nothing more than a hotel manager, trained to negotiate contracts and charged to give shelter to those who need it. My job did not change in the genocide...I only spoke the words that seemed normal and sane to me” (Rusesabagina). He believes he was already negotiating the same amount as

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