Keeping hope during times of war and destruction is vital as it is the only motivation for people in such conditions to continue living. Having hope during such unpleasant times is very difficult and requires a solid mindset which some people have within, but hide beneath all of their troubles, fears, and negativity. The devastating effect of war puts people in great mental and emotional struggles. The character Dragon in the novel “The Cellist of Sarajevo” by Steven Galloway, is an old man who starts off hopeless due to his horrible experience in the Bosnian war but evolves into a hopeful person by the end of the novel. Dragons experience with losing his family and the violence that occurs around him everyday forces him to lose hope for himself, and his city, but through his interaction with Emina, he evolves into a new person.
Due to the harsh conditions of the Bosnian war, Dragan does not retain any hope, in himself, the future of Sarajevo, or in reuniting with his family. Dragan evidently lacks hope when he loses the fear of shootings and people dying around him. Dragan has been living in the dangerous conditions of war for a long time, therefore, “It doesn’t appear to Dragan to make much difference whether the shot hits or misses. It may have in the beginning, months and months ago, but not now” (41). Over the course of the war, Dragon loses the fear of gunshots and bullets being shot around him, not through courage, but the lack of hope in himself. He is no longer surprised when shots are fired around him because he no longer feels that life in Sarajevo is worth living. Therefore he is impassive about the bullets hitting him, or civilians around him, showing the complete absence of hope in Dragan. Secondly, Dragan has lost hope in the future of Sarajevo. When he thinks about the city he grew up in, Dragan feels “...the Sarajevo he thinks he remembers slip away from him a little at a time, like water cupped in the pa...