Girl At War Analysis

In her novel, Girl at War, Sara Nović tells the story of Ana Jurić, a girl plagued by her past: one filled with war, broken memory, and the lack of a sense of home. Ana Jurić grew up in Croatia, a country that was at war with Yugoslavia in its fight for independence. This war shattered not only a country, but also the meaning of home for Ana who fled to America at the age of ten. Having lived so much of her life in Croatia, she naturally called it her home, and dismissed American culture as foreign and strange. However, after living so much of her life in America, her grasp and memory of Croatia slip, in sync with her concept of what it means to belong somewhere. Battling this sense of displacement, Ana finds herself at a disarray when she
Ana’s fear of not being accepted by those that might discover who she really is, stems largely from her own uncertainty of who she is herself. Walking constantly on edge, Ana finds herself analyzing everything she says, always keeping in the back of her mind that she needs to maintain a certain persona. Even when she goes out to see old high school friends, she worries that in “some tipsy exchange ... [she] might have revealed something about [her] past, but [she] was sure [she] hadn’t” (Nović 145). This constant theme of having to watch what she says and not being able to trust her own tongue is indicative of her fear of letting others into her life and knowing the truth about her. Despite this, she admits that a small piece of her just wishes that she had the courage to admit who she was, or perhaps even simpler, she hopes to being forced to admit the truth; for example, when she takes Brian to meet her Uncle Junior “half-hoping [that] Junior would say something that would force [her] to tell the truth” (155). This is the first step in Ana’s journey to finding who she is, as before she had kept Brian away from her family, “afraid of what they might let slip about [her] past” (155). Admitting the truth about her past forces her to confront who she is, and how she sees herself, and yet she is still captured by the fear of being seen as an outcast. This fear holds Ana back from creating lasting relationships with others in her life, namely