Book 3 Listicle

Shake Hands with the Devil (Listicle)

3 Reasons that motivated the writing, and publishing of this novel

The novel, “Shake Hands with the Devil” written by general Romeo Dallaire, is a very different book. While there are many different motives for writing a book, I think it would be interesting to explore Dallaire’s motives. I’m interested in this because there’s an edge of curiosity in me that desires to understand what the real purpose was in publishing this novel. Was it to open the eyes of the public, or perhaps utilized as a tool to share his problems with the world, in part to get over PTSD?

1.      (Published to inform) Many people are blind, or ignorant in relation to the events that pertain to the Rwanda genocide. It’s one of the scariest political turmoil that happened in the world, let alone the United Nation getting involved. I believe general Dallaire had to at least have some sense of desire to inform the mass public of the real world, and a realistic unpolished view of how the world can be. Informing people of such an event through a piece of literature may have also given the author a little more confidence both in writing, and how to feel about the situation as a whole, considering thousands of readers were exposed to both his craft in writing, and mental issues drawn from the genocide.

2.      (Published to entertain) General Romeo Dallaire is one of the highest ranking generals to ever suffer from symptoms of PTSD. Because of this mental disorder, Dallaire may have spurred interest in publishing a novel capturing the feelings, and encounters present in such dark days. I believe this was also published to entertain people, because it was written in such an informative manner, with only captivating details. Dallaire may have wanted to share the stories contained within the novel as he knew they’d interest many people by presenting such diverse themes from your routine novel.

3.      (Published to self-medicate) Undoubtedly the author of the novel general Dallaire experienced some horrifying events in war. After attempted suicide, it’s obvious he wasn't perfectly content with the state in which his life was going. I believe this novel was published in part to help himself get over symptoms of PTSD, and to help resume a normal life by publicizing the terrors to spread the information to a much larger group. I believe this self-medication could be the primary intent to publishing this novel, because I don’t think he expected a ton of success in the book, but rather some sort of honor, or just a person who understands his dilemmas.