“What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.”
Elvis comes to learn that individual choices matter. Although he has high hopes for himself, he learns that the small things add up to something much more meaningful than the chance of being someone's savior. As he grows, Elvis becomes more and more resolved to make specific choices which benefit other people.
“The question is, how do I balance narratives that are wonderful with narratives of wounds and self-loathing? And this is the difficulty that I face. I am trying to move beyond political rhetoric to a place of ethical questioning. I am asking us to balance the idea of our complete vulnerability with the complete notion of transformation or what is possible.”
Elvis demonstrates a unique foresight in his self-analysis. He's extremely mature for his age, probably the result of his childhood survival instinct. In reflecting upon the ethics of his own behavior, Elvis encounters the trap of moralism. He desires to be perfect, but he must learn to criticize himself in a way this is constructive and not destructive. When he makes mistakes, Elvis could easily hurt himself with self-loathing, but instead he learns to focus upon positive change within a system of ethics. He is both capable and dependent, good and bad, making moralism an untenable attitude.
“He knew that scar, that pain, that shame, that degradation that no metaphor could contain, inscribing it on his body. And yet beyond that, he was that scar, carved by hate and smallness and fear onto the world's face. He and everyone like him, until the earth was aflame with scarred black men dying in trees of fire.”
When thinking of his father, Elvis acknowledges how hard the older man's life must have been. He bears a scar from his youth, an outward symbol of internal damage. Elvis can see that while his father is damaged, he also has become an instrument of harm to those around him, like his son who cannot withstand his aggression.
“Listening to the clack clack of the palm fronds form a percussive background to the oboe throb of the sea, he dozed off. An hour later, he woke with a start and, standing up, dusted off the seat of his trousers. White sand, in fine glittering silicon chips, clung to him, catching the sun, turning him into a patchwork fabric of diamonds and ebony.”
This excerpt serves as an example of Abani's prose in narrating. He focuses on the African setting of the story in order to create a sense of the unreal in Elvis' narrative. Just as the sand and the shade transform Elvis' image into something beautiful and unexpected, Elvis is depicted as having the power to transform himself.
