The Cellist of Sarajevo Essay Questions

What does the pile of dead flowers left on the stool on which the cellist played mean?

During her first day protecting the cellist, Arrow notices that someone left a pile of dead flowers on the stool on which the cellist sat during his performance. The flowers were left by those who heard the cellist play and who were moved by his performance, and are thus a gesture that shows that the people were affected by the music played by the cellist. Yet the fact that the flowers were dead signifies the fact that even though the people appreciated the music, death was still omnipresent—it is why the cellist played, and it might come for any of them at any time.

What significance is there in the cellist’s act of leaving his bow behind during his last performance and Arrow’s act of leaving her rifle behind?

After the cellist’s final performance, the cellist leaves his bow behind on the spot where he played for 22 days. Arrow, having completed her mission, also leaves her rifle behind, next to the cello. Both actions are important because the cello and the rifle are the elements that are very closely connected to their respective characters. By leaving them behind, the characters show that their contribution to saving Sarajevo has been successfully completed. The cellist helped maintain hope throughout the city, and Arrow made sure he stayed alive to do so. After doing their part to save Sarajevo, these items now no longer have a use, thus they are discarded with the flowers. Also, the proximity of the cellist's bow and Arrow's rifle signifies how the cellist's music has brought everyone, however different, closer together. The significance of setting these items down is to show that their contribution to Sarajevo has been successfully fulfilled.

Why does Kenan help out Mrs. Ristovski even though he does not want to?

It would be too simplistic to answer this question by simply saying Kenan is a nice person. Certainly, he does seem nice enough, but that does not fully account for why he is willing to continue helping an unpleasant neighbor who actually makes his task harder with the water bottles she gives him. Why Kenan really chooses to help her is that he is proving a point—at the beginning of the conflict he vowed to her, "I will help you. Everyone in the building will help each other. You'll see" (20). It was clear to him that "he could not refuse her" when she handed him the bottles because "No person he would want to be would do that" (21). Kenan has to believe that people will help people, for that is the only world he wants to be a part of.

Why does Arrow give herself up?

One might expect Arrow to live as a fugitive until the end of the war, as it seems like it is something she can pull off quite well. Indeed, she evades her pursuers for as long as she wants and is even able to watch them. Yet this is not the life she wants. She does not want to be forced to "hate her pursuers" for "Whether they are on the hills or in the city, no one will tell her who to hate" (230). Arrow wants to live and die on her own terms, and those terms are that she does not kill people who are innocent and that she does not see her future as someone who could live with what she did during the siege compromised. By getting caught and dying, Arrow actually gets to be true to herself; it is telling that she announces her real name—Alisa—right before she is shot so she can make it clear that she is no longer Arrow the sniper but is instead her former, now purified, self.

Who are the "criminals" in the city?

There are the men on the hills and the defenders of the city, and then there are, as Nermin says, the middle group, the criminals in the city. These are people like Hasan and Karaman, as well as those who profit off of everyone else (such as the man Kenan wants to accost at the marketplace, and all the others driving a Mercedes). They are similar to the men on the hills in that they are unscrupulous and selfish, though they claim to be good citizens of Sarajevo. They think they are good, but they make other people's lives harder. For Arrow, they are just as bad as the men on the hills and indeed, they are the ones who come for her at the end. Their presence suggests "good" and "evil" are not terms so easily assigned.