A Long Way Gone

What is the purpose of the personification of death in the following quote: “Their eyes still showed fear, as if death hadn’t freed them from the madness that continued to unfold” (Beah 49).

Chapters 8-9

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Beah has walked through villages where burnt dead bodies were scattered like leaves on the ground. The personification illustrates the chaos and madness of war. Even death has not freed these bodies from the trauma they have experienced.

I knew I was hungry, but I didn’t have the appetite to eat or the strength to find food. I had passed through burnt villages where dead bodies of men, women, and children of all ages were scattered like leaves on the ground after a storm. Their eyes still showed fear, as if death hadn’t freed them from the madness that continued to unfold.