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

about what is happening to her country and why it is dying and falling apart. She begins to see small signs of the country breaking apart when she goes out to buy cigarettes for her uncle. She is asked to pick between Croatian and Serbian cigarettes. She never had to make a choice like that before, and because of her innocence and lack of understanding she does not know what to do and runs home. Ana also starts to see more signs of war when her friends she plays soccer with start shifting their conversations away from the game and more regarding the injuries and battle scars of many people they know. One night, Ana was out riding bikes with her friend Luka when an air raid was announced. People all around started to hurry frantically to the underground shelters. Later, when she returned home and was very confused. Her father makes it intelligible to her that the Serbs and Croatians are fighting and her family is on Croatia's side. After that occurrence there are many days when Ana and her family must go into hiding and turn off the lights and shut the windows to hide from the Serbians. A Serb man lives in Ana’s building and people are always frantically pleading for him to turn off his lights but he always refuses. Ana soon realizes many men are going to war asks her father if he will ever have to go. He is ashamed to inform her he cannot fight in the war because he has a lazy eye and it would be a hold back in combat. This reassures Ana and makes her feel safe, but truly she is living in a threatening world everywhere around her and does not realize it yet.
I believe that the narrator, Ana has a big impact on how the story is perceived.

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

potential.
The secondary characters also play a key role in the comprehension and characteristic of the story.

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

have felt during this time of the civil war.
Sarah Nović has a way of writing that interests and perplexes me. She is able to convey such a heavy topic through the persona of a spirited young girl. She seems to keep the story light hearted while showing the hardships and struggles the average citizen must through. She teaches me and many readers how to keep the positivity of a child's mindset even in times of trouble. This story can help to solve many future problems and most importantly teach a person the value of youth and how important innocence can be.