Second to Last Post for this Quarter

In Helene Cooper's The House at Sugar Beach danger is a constant in Helene's life. There are many forms of danger and they seem to be growing as the years go by. Cooper describes a situation that happened to one of her friends, Richard, and heartmen which are men who murder the unsuspecting. Cooper writes, "The watchmen followed the heartmen, and saw two others join him just down the road. They had machetes, too. And garbage bags, presumably to carry away Richard's carcass" (157). Cooper talks about this as if it is nothing, an everyday occurrence, but reading it made me shiver. The constant threat of dying is just another part of her life, one that doesn't seem to faze her, or Liberians in general, too much. Luckily, Richard escaped and lived to tell the tale. Cooper talks about how, "The next day at school, all Richard could talk about was his escape" (157). Richard faced a traumatic experience and instead of being scared about what he went through, he was bragging about it the next day in school, making it seem like a hero. The possibility of danger is enough to make some stay away, but for Helene and her friends it is just a fact of life.

Another terrible incident that happens to the Cooper is family is when their house is raided by soldiers. Cooper describes the terrifying event, "They were brazen. They had nothing to hide from and nothing to fear, and they could come into our yard and into our house and take whatever they wanted and so whatever they wanted" (171). Helene is around thirteen years old when the soldiers come and it's just her, her sisters and mother there. She knows there's nothing she can do to stop the men and this passage shows she realizes this. She doesn't know what to do because there is nothing to do and she's afraid about what's going to happen. This has to be bloodcurdling. Just as Cooper says, the soldiers do what they want to Helene's mother, "'Those damn soldiers gang-raped me,' she said" (177). Helene and her sisters can hear the men and what they're doing to their mother, these are sounds that will haunt Helene the rest of her life, something she'll never forget. Since Liberia is revolting and her family have power in the country Helene is faced with horrific catastrophes, shaping who she becomes.