Testing the Limits...

 After a long journey and loosing his friends, Ishmael gets assigned to the army and hopes to get revege for his family. Ishmael is running way from violence but in order to survive he had to form part of it but he didn´t know that trying to take revenge for his family would go to the limit.  

"Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in he ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn't feel any better" (122). 
Ishmael tries to relief his pain through killing rebels and violence but each violent act he does pays the price by taking away his humanity. This is why Ishmael can´t feel better by killing them; It is not something a kid or any human in general should be doing. He is just becoming more like the rebels who killed his family. 

"I had my gun now, and as the corporal always said, -This gun is your source of power in these times. It will protect you and provide you all you need, if you know how to use it well-" (124). 

In this world full of violence and death where Ishmael is forced to live in, he has no choice but to rely on his gun. Violence seems to be the only way out, and Ishmael needs to fight for his sanity. 

Ishmael is a strong person, who does not give up and that´s what allowed him to triumph. Not giving up is clue for life and not only useful for survival but for happiness and a good future too.