Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power (Benjamin Disraeli).

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Recommended: The effect of war on family and society

People change gradually through every day, peaceful experiences; however, others change quickly because a radical life event forces them to. An extraordinary event, such as a war, can alter people in sudden, permanent, and often negative ways. In The Cellist of Sarajevo, written by Steven Galloway, the three main characters, Dragan, Arrow, and Kenan, were living happy, ordinary lives doing ordinary, pleasant things such as taking the tram and buying ice cream. During the siege of Sarajevo, they were obligated to kill, risk their lives, and live in fear. War forces people to ignore what they want and do what they need. Each of the three main characters, Kenan, Arrow, and Dragan, had their lives turned upside down: Kenan was forced to risk his life for his family, Arrow was forced to kill, and Dragan was separated from his loved ones.
Kenan was a happy husband and father who enjoyed his family and work, until the war forced him to navigate across a battlefield, his city, just to get water for survival. In order to get it from the only safe place, the brewery, he lugged eight large jugs through regularly shelled streets and intersections. Although his children begged him to help get the water, Kenan acknowledges the danger and does not take them because "if both he and his son were killed he knows his wife would never recover" (27, Galloway). He also notes that "if he was killed, he doesn't want anyone in his family to witness it" (27, Galloway). Galloway builds suspense and makes Kenan's situation more realistic by often leaving him in a precarious situation and continuing the narrative of the other characters, allowing the reader to empathize with his risk. The war forces Kenan to risk his life every four days in order for ...

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...ar turned the three character's lives upside down.
In The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway, the siege forces the characters to neglect what they want and do what is required of them. This requirement varies from living with someone you don't like, to walking across a battlefield to get water, to being obligated to kill people. Interestingly, we do not value what we want to do until the opportunity is taken away from us. Perhaps Joni Mitchell says it best: "Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?" (Mitchell)

Works Cited

Disraeli, Benjamin . "Benjamin Disraeli quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. .
Galloway, Steven. The Cellist of Sarajevo. New York: Riverhead Books, 2008. Print.
Mitchell, Joni. Big Yellow Taxi. RCA, 1970. Record.

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