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    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation"
    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation"
    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation"
    Ebook44 pages33 minutes

    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Newsmakers for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Newsmakers for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 20, 2016
    ISBN9781535819220
    A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation"

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      A Study Guide for Uzodinma Iweala's "Beasts of No Nation" - Gale

      information.

      Beasts of No Nation

      Uzodinma Iweala

      2005

      Introduction

      Beasts of No Nation is the impressive, powerful debut novel by Uzodinma Iweala. Originally written as Iweala's senior thesis at Harvard, it became a literary sensation almost immediately after its publication in 2005. Iweala won the 2005 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for fiction, the 2005–2006 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and the 2006 Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public Library.

      Written in the first person, Beasts of No Nation is told from the point of view of Agu, a child soldier fighting in an unnamed African country during a time of civil war. While Agu lives through torturous situations—including killing, stealing, and being raped—he remembers, as if in a dream, the days when he lived with his family and went to school. Agu perseveres through his child soldier experience and retains some hope, but he, like the readers, has been profoundly changed.

      Inspired by a news magazine article on child soldiers, Iweala conducted in-depth research for his project. He read numerous biographical accounts of child soldiers from Asia and Africa and also traveled back to his family's native Nigeria to meet with people who had fought in that country's civil war in the 1960s. While child soldiers were not used in this conflict, many young men in their late teens, including Iweala's own father, served as guerrilla fighters. It was important to the author to write about what had happened in his native country.

      While critics found much to like about Beasts of No Nation, one of the largest points of debate about the book was the voice and language of Agu. Iweala admitted the language, inspired by the way he perceives Nigerians speak English, was filtered through his imagination. Many critics found the language difficult at first, but came to embrace it as an effective means of understanding Agu's tortured psyche. Some critics rejected the language as inauthentic and undermining to Iweala's narrative.

      Iweala stated that he wrote Beasts of No Nation to tell a good story, as well as promote awareness about the plight of child soldiers. Many reviewers took up issue with the political angle of the novel. For example, Regis Behe in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review wrote, In the end, Iweala offers the reader a shaky, fragile redemption that leaves one question unanswered: Where was the rest of the world while Agu was forced to trade his youth for a brutal existence no child should ever have to face?

      Author Biography

      Uzodinma Iweala was born in 1982 in Washington, D.C., the son of Ikemba Iweala and his wife, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. His parents were Nigerian and insisted their

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