57 pages • 1 hour read
Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995
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Symbols & Motifs
Jeans
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, and religious discrimination.
Jeans are an important symbol in the text. Many of the girls in Goražde ask Sacco to get them jeans when he is in Sarajevo, even promising to pay him back: “‘Can you buy some Levi’s for me in Sarajevo? 501’s, originals. I can give you the money.’ She gave me her sizes. ‘But they must be originals’” (7). The excitement over these jeans, and the need for them to be original, reflects how the jeans symbolize the outside world and freedom to the girls in Goražde. Jeans also represent freedom of movement, a freedom that Goražde does not have: While Sacco can travel to Sarajevo, the townspeople cannot.
Having the jeans also comes with some social status, representing a connection to America. When one girl receives a knockoff pair, she is crushed: “[S]he’d been very specific about what sort of jeans they should send—the label said 501’s but—‘They’re not originals’” (193). The girl is disappointed that she does not have the “real” pants she asked for, believing that only American jeans are a status symbol. The need for and devotion to these jeans demonstrates how the youth of Goražde crave escape and connection to the wider world.
Home Videos
Home videos form an important motif in the text. A man shows Sacco and his journalist colleague Serif videos of horrors from the many attacks perpetrated by the Serbs: “There were tapes in town of unspeakable things, Gorazde’s own Most Horrifying Home Videos, amateur footage of shells coming in, animals split open, children sheared in two by anti-aircraft cannon, legs getting sawn off without anesthetic” (120). These videos, made with basic equipment, show the horrors of the attacks. Additionally, the fact that they are filmed by townspeople with their own equipment demonstrates how quickly their normal lives devolved into war. People want to document what happens in Goražde to show the world and provide proof of the crimes committed against them, using their own cameras—which once filmed birthdays, weddings, and holidays—to do so.
When Sacco interviews Dr. Begovic, they also watch home videos of surgeries, and Sacco realizes how desensitized the people around him are: “He put on the video…we did our interview…and every once in a while he’d look up and recall an operation we were watching” (122). While Sacco flinches at these videos, the townspeople react differently, accustomed to the horror and violence. For over three years in Goražde, when the townspeople record their lives, they only see tragedy around them.
The Blue Road
The Blue Road is the protected route from Goražde to Sarajevo by which the UN is meant to provide support to the besieged enclave and its people. It becomes an important symbol of The Ineffective Role of International Organizations in Conflict, as despite UN protection, the road does not offer Goražde true relief: “The Blue Road—so-named because UN soldiers wore blue helmets—wound from Sarajevo to Gorazde through areas ‘cleansed’ of Muslims. And that was the rub: The Blue Road was entirely in Serb-held territory” (57).
The Serbs often abuse their relationship with the UN to prevent any kind of support reaching Goražde: “Although obliged by the October ’95 ceasefire to allow unhindered access to Gorazde, the Serbs were throwing up roadblocks, holding up convoys, sometimes turning them back” (58). The UN refuses to use force to deliver food and aid, constantly wavering between taking a firmer stand with the Serbs or withdrawing further to preserve their neutrality. The UN’s lack of decisiveness makes the road, though a glimmer of hope, an ineffective support for the townspeople.
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