"Striving to be like the moon"

By the end of chapter 1, Ishmael Beah describes how the old man used to say to people, "We must strive to be like the moon". His grandmother explained him what the old man meant. She said " the adage served to remind people to always be on their best behavior and to be good to others".

In chapter 2 he describes what he sees in his dream. He was part of the attack to the other armed group. He killed children just as young as him; I think in this part I cannot make a connection from his dream to how would he strive to be like the moon. By the end of the chapter he describes how he would like to erase those memories from the past, but he is aware that they are an important part of his life and that they make him who he is now. He also says " I would like to return to my new life, to rediscover the happiness I had know as a child, the joy that had stayed alive inside me even through times when being alive itself became a burden". This specific part makes me believe he is striving to be like the moon; even with all of the bad experiences he had as a child, he is trying his best to create a new life, and does not let those memories affect his present.