An Ordinary Man Rusesabagina Analysis

Importance of Words The act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information to express your ideas, thoughts, or feelings to someone else is to communicate, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. In An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina, Rusesabagina shares his experiences during the Rwandan Genocide. During this event Rusesabagina was the manager of the Hotel Mille Collines. In 1994 Rwanda descended into chaos, but Rusesabagina was one of the few people that remained calm. By keeping calm, Rusesabagina was able to protect and hide 1,268 Tutsi and Moderate Hutu refugees from the Interahamwe militia and potentially their death. Rusesabagina also shares his remarkable experiences during the genocide, his life as a refugee, and his life as an activist after it ended. Readers will learn that Rusesabagina has strong beliefs in communication in order to overcome hardships through characterization, conflicts, and literary criticism while reading An Ordinary Man. Rusesabagina illustrates the importance of communication to help conquer adversities through the characterization of Paul. Born into a family of farmers, Paul learned that money does not matter, but love, family, and words do. Paul was also taught through a story told by his father that any excuse used will cause them to serve as a tyrant. The retainment of these lessons were clearly portrayed through Paul’s words and actions. Paul always knew it was more important to put others first and to not become a despot to the guests residing in his hotel. These actions were also demonstrated with his family, especially during the height of the genocide. For instance, when Paul was given the opportunity to escape the disarray in Rwanda, he knew how to make the right choice, whether it was what he wanted to do or not. “But I could not. I really could not. I knew that if I took this opportunity to leave I would be removing one of the only remaining barriers between the militias and the guests”(Rusesabagina 146). Although Paul may have been significantly tempted by this rare offer, he was aware of what choice would leave him content in the long run. Paul did not want to leave his abundance of guests stranded, suddenly without a leader. He did not feel capable of leaving these people to struggle to survive without communicating to them what was going on at all hours of the day. As rumors spread that Paul was leaving, he held a meeting with all the residents to say he was not going anywhere and they had no reason to worry about no longer having protection. Paul’s communication skills helped the residents remain calm and confident in Paul’s protection. In addition to the characterization of Paul, the characterization of Tatiana, Paul’s wife, also conveys Rusesabagina’s theme of the importance of communication to help surmount difficulties. Despite the fact that Tatiana does not play a large role in the story, her minor role has a lot of meaning. Some may say that Paul and Tatiana were not meant to be together based on their social classes, since Paul …show more content…
Protecting people from a genocide is an extremely demanding duty, especially when in a country that does not have a plethora of supplies to work with. Rusesabagina single handedly prevented over one thousand people from being slaughtered to death, but believe it or not, many people did not approve of his methods. Rusesabagina was a very words-based man and favored solving problems through conversation rather than through violence. Many had the opinion that Rusesabagina’s methods did not make him a good man and he would find more success through the use of other methods. Including this instance in time, “... she told me I was acting like a coward for not acquiring a firearm. ‘You know that I have always said I fight with words, not guns,’ I told her” (Rusesabagina 70-71). Rusesabagina believes the better option of problem solving is to take the time to use words in order to minimize the amount of mishaps while trying to survive the war. This theme was also conveyed by Rusesabagina living by example and acting as he feels others should act. The explanation of Rusesabagina’s choices while battling war help illustrate the importance of words when trying to overcome