Genocide Exposed In Shattered By Eric Walters

Over the course of 100 days, over 800,000 innocent people were murdered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Many schools don’t teach about the horrific acts occurring outside of their country’s four walls. Is it to protect the students’ innocence or to keep them from being afraid? Would it not be better to teach kids about these acts so they can keep from making the same mistakes in the future? In the book Shattered by Eric Walters, our main character, Ian Blackburn was totally unaware of the genocide until he met Sarge, a homeless military veteran at a soup kitchen called ‘The Club”. Ian began the novel a wealthy, ignorant high school student, but with the help of his housekeeper Berta, Sarge, and the owner of The Club, Mac, he developed into

Sarge taught Ian many things since they met. He taught him how to be smart in the streets and the park, about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and he forced Ian to learn to help others in hard situations. Ian met Sarge at the beginning of the first chapter. Sarge was a beggar, asking for spare change. When Ian went to pull out his wallet (to get the change for Sarge), he was quickly shut down and told that it was stupid to pull out a wallet full of cash because you never know who was watching. This was one of many lessons Sarge taught Ian about being safe in the streets and in the bad parts of town. Secondly, Sarge helped Ian develop by sparking his interest in global issues. During an interview with Sarge for a school project in chapter nine, Ian was given tons of information about what it was like being in the military, as well as living on the streets. Near the end of the interview, Sarge mentioned the genocide in Rwanda and angrily stormed off after finding out that Ian had no idea what had happened in Rwanda, nor why it was such a tragedy. This sparked Ian’s interest in global issues, as mentioned before, and therefore began to develop him as a character. Finally, we found out early on in the novel that Sarge was an alcoholic. As the book went on, Sarge became harder and harder to be around. This put Ian in a position that he’d never been in before: he wanted to help out a friend, but he didn’t quite know how.

MacDonald, or Mac, was the owner of the soup kitchen that Ian was forced to volunteer at in order to pass his civics class. Throughout the book, Mac helped Ian change from an ignorant, privileged high-school student to a caring, smart young man. Mac gave him the opportunity to work at The Club, helped him learn more about homelessness and life on the streets, and how to help his friends in times of need. First, Mac was the reason Ian got his volunteer job at the kitchen in the first place and it was made clear from the beginning that Ian did not want to be there. A conversation between Mac and Ian on page 22 shows this: “‘This really isn’t something you want to do,’ he said. “Um… I guess not,’ I answered reluctantly.” It was pretty clear that Ian didn’t want to be at the soup kitchen; however, by the final chapter, The Club had grown on him and he even admitted that he’d be coming back even after his hours were up. In the beginning, Ian disliked homeless people and he couldn’t believe he had to go to a soup kitchen and feed them for forty hours. But after Mac taught him about those on the streets and their stories, his perspective on this unfamiliar world changed for good. “Everybody has a nickname and a story.” (Page 57) were the words Mac said to Ian one day while talking about Sarge. This made Ian more interested in the stories of those on the streets and the more he knew, the more empathy he felt towards people in that situation. Finally, Mac helps Ian find a way to