Deniros_Game

During civil wars people help others in order to survive the war. Surviving during a war is a hard thing to do usually the strongest and luckiest people survive. During wars the people who learn how to adapt are most likely to survive, the same could be said about surviving in today’s society. Survival can also be seen in the book deniros game written by Rawi Hage and is based on the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. The author was living in Lebanon during the civil war and later immigrated to Canada. The book is based on the lives of Bassam the narrator and George his childhood friend. The novel shows the different paths that the two follow as they face the difficult choice of whether to stay in Beirut and get involved in organized crime, or to leave Lebanon and build a new life in another country. The book had a mixture of English and Arabic. The book shows the desperate measures people take to survive through the eyes of Bassam, George and Abou-Nahra, George’s boss Bassam is the narrator in the book; everything is seen through his eyes. Bassam is a character who is obsessed on leaving Beirut to live abroad “I was not escaping the war; I was running away from Fairuz, the notorious singer”. , he would do anything to leave Beirut he even resulted in crime. He had no living family members, at the first chapter of the book he was living with his mother but she later died during a bomb blast in their neighborhood. He was a violent man who murdered people and stole money, he was very rude and was described as being a thug by abou-dolly, his neighbor. He worked at a dock where he got little pay when he decided on leaving Beirut he and George participated in a scam to fund his escape. The scam was on a casino owned by Abou– Nahra, the head of the militia. He later got contacted by Abou–Nahra to the join the militia, he at first refused the offer because he believed Abou-nahra had discovered his scam in the casino but he later accepted a job in transporting cheap wine. He was mainly shown as being violent but he had a good side like when he tried save a dieing girl, he later attended her funeral, he is also seen as being good in the way he cared for rhea George’s half sister. In Beirut bassam was involved with a girl called Rabla but she ended the relationship once she became violent with her, while still with Rabla, he tried to get involved with Georges Aunt Nabila but she refused because he was George’s friend. Abou-nahra arrested Bassam; he was accused of killing a man called Laurent Aoudeh, he was tortured and was later released when Nabila begged abou-narha to release him. After getting released from prison he traveled to Paris on a boat, on arriving in Paris he meet up with Rabia, George’s sister who helped him while he was in Paris, he later immigrated to Canada. Abou-nahra was George’s boss in the novel. he was in charge of militia in east Beirut and also owned the casino. He owned various businesses and used the war to make a profit. He recruited George to work for him with militia and also attempted to recruit Bassam. He was once involved with Georges Aunt Nabila. He was ruthless; anybody who disobeyed him would either be sent to prison or be killed, as seen when he tortured Bassam when he was accused of killing one of his customers. He was a member of the Lebanese military and was very corrupt. He seems to not want the war to end. Bassam is Georges best friend in the novel, he lacked emotion and was a ruthless killer. He got his nickname Deniro from the Robert Deniro movie, the deer hunter. Bassam and George have very different life philosophies and attitudes. He worked at the casino owned by Abou-nahra; he was later recruited by abou-nahra to join the Christian militia despite Bassam’s warnings, he became abou-narha’s right hand man. George turns into a drug pusher, addict and killer, engaged in revenge, massacres and ethnic cleansing of a Palestinian camp. He never meet his father and would always change the subject whenever he was asked about his father