"Everyone knows the family of everyone else among the Zaghawa" (33)
Because the Zaghawa is a small and tight knit tribe, the tribe members know everyone in the region and in the community. They are very neighborly and provide a lot of help and support to one another throughout the book.
"Family members were searching from village to village to find one another, and Shieks were helping to take care of everyone" (35)
"In this way our village, though now a moving line in the desert, was still the same people helping one another" (62)
"You should always do what you need to be helpful" (69)
During the aftermath of conflict in Hari's home village, the community is coming together to help find displaced people, or at least their bodies. The shieks (Arab or Muslim leaders) were helping to communicate between everybody, because they were such a central part of life in the village, and therefore everyone would come to them for new information.
"The birds flew up and away" (40)
"Up ahead of me, in normal times, green trees, the sound of birds, the smell of cooking" (43)
"Now, there were very few birds" (43)
"The birds flew up and down as if they were unsure of which place might be safe" (52)
Birds are used throughout the book to represent life in times of peace in Sudan. When he reflects on calm times, there are birds and trees. The birds provide a symbol that is paralell to that of the citizens of Sudan.
"A vast city of desperation, as if all the poverty and sadness in the world had come from one endless storage yard somewhere" (71)
"Could there not be humane shelters if we (people) are a family?" (74)
The camps are sad and barren, made from scraps. Daoud reflects on the sorry state of them, thinking about how everyone describes the world as a family, but then neglects to care for one another when the situation is too sad or too difficult to fix.
"The bold colors they had put away before the attacks were now waving from their lean bodies with defiance- the flags of resilient life" (73)
Women had put back on their robes and colorful clothing as conflict had subsided, because they had changed in to neutral colors to hide from bombers above. This is a symbol of the pride and resilience of women and sudanese citizens.
