War

The novel’s setting is a country on the precipice between war and peace, and the narrative uses these tense dynamics in order to explore the horrors of violence and the necessity of peaceful coexistence. The novel never names the country in which the story takes place, but one of the main features of the setting is that the country has recently reached a peace agreement after a long civil war: “The [parade] would leave the capital and travel south, symbolizing an end to decades of war and the beginning of the peace and prosperity the road would make possible” (2). By juxtaposing the horrific effects of war with the possibility of peace, the novel functions in part as an illustration of the paramount necessity of peaceful coexistence. As Four paves the road, he views many of the lasting effects of war, and he also views the...