Reversing perverted development: magical realism in Moses, Citizen & Me

Abstract

This paper focuses on reimagining the developmental process of the child soldier who has developed abnormally into adulthood and bringing him back into normal childhood. In particular, it considers how the attention of Delia Jarrett-Macauley’s novel, Moses, Citizen & Me (2005) is directed at restoring the childhood of the child soldier. The novel achieves this aim through employing creative narrative techniques to take the monstrous adult that the child has become, through a reverse-development, back to childhood from which the child may be re-educated and re-formed. The novel thus represents how the child soldier whose experience has turned him into some kind of ‘monster’ may be restored to humanity. The paper argues that magical realism in Moses, Citizen & Me encompasses a therapeutic tendency that represents a form of healing for child soldiers.

Keywords: child soldiers, reverse development, magical realism, Moses, Citizen & Me