Helene's House
Helene's feelings towards the house she grew up in are entirely ironic; as a child, growing up there, she actually hates the house. She is frightened by its vastness and the noises it makes; she is cold all the time even under blankets at night, and she is fearful that someone will break in and kidnap her; yet when it is time to flee the country and leave the home she feels a rush of love for it and does not want to go. For the rest of her youth, and into adulthood, she realizes that she loved the house all along but never knew it. She did not know what she had in the house until it was gone.
President Doe's "Manifesto"
Doe, like his followers, hates the ruling elite because they have all of the wealth and all of the power. Those who support him do so because they see an unfair society that does not include them. Ironically, as soon as he is in power, President Doe becomes more corrupt than the politicians he deposes. He becomes wealthier than the politicians he ousted and creates another ruling class that does not include his supporters because his only interest is furthering he own needs and not those of the people who helped get him there.
Helene's Epiphany
Helene has not really thought much about returning to Liberia until she is almost killed in a tank incident in Iraq. It occurs to her that if she is going to be killed in a war zone then it should be in her own country, not somebody else's.
Becoming a War Correspondent
As Helene's childhood was interrupted by civil war, it would be reasonable to imagine that Helene would want to steer clear of war and conflict for the rest of her life; ironically she gravitates towards it and becomes a war correspondent, putting herself deliberately back into the danger she had once fled from.
Helene's School Experience
School was, for Helene, both a miserable and a delightful experience all at the same time. She did not feel that she fit in and was constantly not able to make friends easily. She was lonely and didn't like school at all - but this enabled her to throw herself into her studies and actually graduate as one of the school's most successful students.
