Johnny Mad Dog

The author of Johnny Mad Dog, Emmanuel Dongala, did a great job showing the real inside story behind the child soldiers. As I had already been learning from other books that I have had the opportunity to read this semester, the issues behind the child soldiers were very deep. Yet the author I believe showed the honest down to the gritty truth behind it all. He showed you how things were and did not try to sugar coat it, which I think was very important. Things of that nature need to be out in the open, people need to know what is going on and they need to know the truth.

It was very interesting to me how Dongala showed both sides of the story. He used character in a great way. He was able to clearly portray the mental logic behind the children that were sucked into that way of life. As well as the other families and children that were affected by the child soldiers. Previously to reading this particular novel, I looked at the issues regarding the child soldiers one sided. I couldn't get past the things that these children were doing and how it affected the people around them. Though now, after reading this novel, I have had a reaslistic look into the minds of these children. I was really able to see what they are thinking about.

This book shows just how courrupt their minds have become. I have learned that this is way more serious then I ever would have thought. The character Johnny Mad Dog is a very unique character. Reading about the things that he did and the things that went through his head were very disturbing.

"The others laughed some more. I was boiling with rage. I though
of liling Giap, and I imaghined my hand reaching steathily for my AK-47.
But my quick mind realized that he's already attached his bullet-shield fetish
to his biceps. This fetish, at its weakest, could transform bullets into
clumps of wet dirt, and at maximum power could make the slugs ricochet off his
body and whiz back to strike whoever had fired them."

Things like this shows that Johnny Mad Dog was not a normal sixteen year old. He not only had violence flowing through his blood. But he also had false ideas flowing through his head about the powers that those above him had. They were not just above him in rank, but to him had some special powers makind them of another higher being. Which just shows that the young boys were not only angered, but they also were brain washed in more way then I would have ever thought.