"If people are going to be taken away from him, either through death or a transformation of their personality that makes them into strangers, then he's better off without them.’’
Dragan is a character who went to great lengths to protect himself from pain; for example, he sent his family to another country to make sure that they did not die in the war. He also made sure to sever all the ties he had with his friends, not being able to bear the loss of another loved one. Because of this, Dragan harbors the belief that instead of suffering for someone who died, it is better to distance himself from them and pretend like they never existed. It is his interaction with Emina and his confrontation of what makes life worth living that begins to shift his mindset back to the need for human connection.
He's afraid of dying. He may very well die at any time, whether he's in the army or not, but he feels that as a civilian his chances are lower, and if he's killed it will be unjust, whereas for a soldier death is part of the job.
Kenan thinks about dying all the time, as he is forced to see many people in his city die every day. Just like many other people, Kenan did everything he could to avoid being drafted into the military. While Kenan feels guilty about this, as if he should have risked his life just like any other soldier, he can’t deny the fact that he is more interested in living than in putting his life in danger for a lost cause. Kenan feels that soldiers are bound to die sooner or later and because of this he does everything he can to ensure that he remains a civilian. Galloway does not condemn that choice, instead suggesting Kenan's small actions and victories (such as safely getting water for himself and his family) are laudable in their own way.
''We're better than this.''
Despite the circumstances in which she is forced to live, Arrow maintains her integrity and her morals. Even though she kills people, she refuses to kill someone she believes to be innocent. When Hasan tries to convince Arrow to shoot a man who is a civilian, Arrow refuses, telling him that they do not have to be like the enemy, that they can be better. When Hasan still insists that she kills the man, Arrow put her own life in danger by not listening to orders; this proves that she is better than the rest.
Every day the Sarajevo he thinks he remembers slips away from him a little at a time, like water cupped in the palms of his hands, and when it’s gone he wonders what will be left.
This is a narrative passage of Dragan’s memories of Sarajevo. This simile compares water to the citizens' hope, and illustrates how both are essential to Sarajevo's survival. Just like water, without hope the citizens of Sarajevo would have no energy or will to continue to fight for their city, and as a result Sarajevo would fall. In a city that now has very little, hope is one of the few things that Sarajevans cannot afford to lose. Hope gives people something to look forwards to and work towards; it makes the destruction and death surrounding them a little easier to bear. At one point, however, all of the water will drip through, and Sarajevo will lose hope. When that happens, the Sarajevo that once was will forever be no more, just like the water that falls from a cupped hand.
"But I think he believed that what he and others suffered there meant something, that people had learned from it. But they haven't."
The man Dragan refers to survived the Holocaust, an event that resulted in people around the world claiming that such a tragedy, a genocide, a moral failure of extreme proportions, could never be allowed to happen again. The Holocaust was supposed to be a lesson in how, to use Hannah Arendt's phrase, the "banality of evil" was made manifest. Of course, human nature is prone to selective amnesia when it suits a purpose, and people can ignore or explain away anything that does not serve their ends. Evil does endure and lessons are ignored; the Rwandan genocide, the Killing Fields, and the siege of Sarajevo are all a testament to that sobering fact.
. . . he believes the character of those who will build this city again is more important than the makeup of those who destroyed it.
Kenan has to believe that the city will endure the siege and that it will be rebuilt someday, and here he articulates the fact that it absolutely matters who is doing the rebuilding. If it is people who care only about money or power then Sarajevo will no doubt end up in a similar place as before. If it is rebuilt by people who demonstrate love for their fellow man, who value art and experience, who heed the lessons of history, then it can once again be a place that is worth living in.
The cellist confuses her. She doesn't know what he hopes to achieve with his playing.
Most of the people who encounter the cellist have this thought at first—they don't know what he hopes to accomplish, if he is crazy or just doesn't care that what he is doing is dangerous, if he knows that music itself cannot end the siege or restore what was lost, if he is playing to get attention or if he is playing for himself. Though we cannot know for sure, as we do not have any insight into the cellist's thoughts, it seems evident that he cares only for the music—there is nothing else he can do to ensure his survival or honor what has been lost or create meaning in a meaningless world, so he plays. Playing reminds him and everyone who listens that life still goes on and it is worth living, and that buildings can be destroyed but art and civilization endure.
. . . she felt that rage directed especially at those at the funeral who appeared most bereaved. How could they possibly feel so much grief? How could they not have reached the point months and months ago at which a person simply can't feel any more pain?
Here Arrow articulates the deadening, dulling effect of so much trauma and catastrophe on the human spirit. It is hard for her to understand why some people still feel so deeply, why they are genuinely sad when someone they love dies. This isn't because Arrow is a terrible person, but because her knee-jerk reaction is that people should be exhausted from all of the grieving and no longer have much to give. This is a sentiment Dragan echoes when he is surprised that Emina seems concerned about whether or not people were killed in the intersection. Losing one's connection to other people, to feeling and emotion, is one of the most psychologically deleterious effects of the siege.
But when people die they're removed, taken to hospitals and graveyards, and before the bodies are healed or cold the spot where they were shattered is unrecognizable as a place where anything out of the ordinary happened. This is why the men on the hills are able to kill with impunity . . .
Kenan notes the Catch-22 of the situation: a body lying in the street would be a travesty and an offense to the city's sense of self (Dragan decides to drag the man with the hat's body out of the intersection because he does not want him to just lie there or the cameraman to snap a photo of it), but when the bodies are taken away it gives the impression of a blank slate for the men on the hills to fire upon again. The bodies do not fester and rot; they do not pile up. As they are absent, they do not necessitate any sort of reckoning. Thus, the men on the hills get to embrace selective amnesia, keep doing what they're doing, and pretend that things are not as monstrous as they are.
"I know no one is coming. I just don't want to believe it."
What makes the siege even more unbearable for the people who live in the city is the fact that the rest of the world does not seem to know or care what is happening; news reports trickle out but bear no fruit, photos capture scenes but not the reality, and corrupt citizens in the city stymie any of the actual rescue efforts. Emina gives voice here to this painful reality: one would think that in the 1990s, a city/country in crisis would warrant humanitarian aid and intervention, but nothing and no one are coming and this seems impossible to comprehend. It is easier to think that hope is around the proverbial corner than to realize the rest of the world just does not care.
