People change gradually through peaceful daily experiences; however, others change quickly because a drastic event in their life forces them to. An extraordinary event, such as war, can change people in sudden, permanent, and often negative ways. In The Cellist of Sarajevo, written by Steven Galloway, the three main characters, Dragan, Arrow and Kenan, led happy, ordinary lives doing ordinary, enjoyable things like riding the tram and buying ice cream. During the siege of Sarajevo, they were forced to kill, risk their lives and live in fear. War forces people to ignore what they want and do what they need. Each of the three main characters, Kenan, Arrow and Dragan, saw their lives turned upside down: Kenan was forced to risk his life for his family, Arrow was forced to kill and Dragan was separated from his loved ones. Kenan was a happy husband and father who loved his family and his work, until the war forced him to cross a battlefield, his town, just to get water to survive. To get it from the only safe place, the brewery, he lugged eight large jugs through regularly bombed streets and intersections. Although his children begged him to help him fetch water, Kenan recognizes the danger and does not take them because "if he and his son were killed, he knows his wife would never recover." » (27 years old, Galloway). He also notes that “if he was killed, he doesn't want anyone in his family to witness it” (27, Galloway). Galloway builds suspense and makes Kenan's situation more realistic by often leaving him in a precarious situation and continuing the other characters' narrative, allowing the reader to understand his risk. The war forces Kenan to risk his life every four days so that ...... middle of paper ......ar turns the lives of the three characters upside down. In Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, the siege forces the characters to neglect what they want and do what is expected of them. This requirement varies from living with someone you don't like, to crossing a battlefield to get water, to being forced to kill people. Interestingly, we don’t place value on what we want to do until the opportunity is taken away from us. Perhaps Joni Mitchell said it best: “It doesn’t always seem to go away / That you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone?” (Mitchell)Works CitedDisraeli, Benjamin. “Quote from Benjamin Disraeli.” BrainyQuote. Xplore and Web. April 21, 2014. .Galloway, Steven. The cellist from Sarajevo. New York: Riverhead Books, 2008. Print. Mitchell, Joni. Big yellow taxi. RCA, 1970. Disc.