Summary

Section 2 opens with Alfa's striking declaration at the beginning of Chapter 5: "God's truth, I was inhuman" (29). He tells readers that his ritual of killing blue-eyed German soldiers is an attempt to reclaim his humanity, to do for the enemy what he would not do for his friend. He stinks of death every day.

In Chapter 6, readers learn that Alfa's trench-mates begin to fear him, whispering about him behind his back. Rumors spread that his "Strangeness had been transformed into madness, and madness into witchcraft. Soldier sorcerer" (33).

In Chapter 7, Alfa embraces his new identity and begins to understand himself as death itself. He does not mind that his fellow soldiers always kept themselves ten large steps away from either side of me" (37). He recalls his friendship with Mademba in Gandiol, their home country, and reflects on the totems each family represented. Mademba's family had...