Shake Hands with the Devil

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Foreword

Preface-Introduction

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Preface-IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface Summary

In the Preface, Dallaire explains why he wrote Shake Hands With The Devil. Although other books had already been written about modern Rwandan history and the Rwandan Genocide, Dallaire claims that “none of them seemed to get the story right” (xviii). Still, he refrained from writing a book since he was busy speaking on the subject and testifying against the perpetrators. He was also wrestling with his own mental health disorders resulting from his experiences and dealing with the fact he had become a “convenient scapegoat” in some eyes.

Dallaire’s comrade in Rwanda, Major Brent Beardsley, eventually convinced Dallaire to write the book, arguing, “if I did not put my story on paper, our children and our grandchildren would never really know about our role in and our passage through the Rwandan catastrophe” (xix). Dallaire sees Shake Hands with The Devil as a chance to leave his own eyewitness testimony to the Rwandan Genocide: “What I do have to offer the survivors and Rwanda's future generations is my story as best as I can remember it” (xxi).

Introduction Summary and Analysis

In the introduction, Dallaire recounts going on a mission to escort two hundred civilians to safety in territory held by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). While returning from the mission, Dallaire and his men pass several villages whose inhabitants have been massacred. One survivor is a three-year-old boy, whom Dallaire wants to take to an orphanage in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. However, a 15-year-old RPF soldier intervenes, saying the child belongs to “his people” (3) and should come with him. Dallaire follows the boy to a hut; inside are the decaying corpse of a man and the bodies of the boy’s family: a man, a woman, and two children. Dallaire decides, “I couldn’t save Rwanda, but I could save this child” (4), and resolves to adopt him. However, the soldier grabs the boy and takes him away.

Dallaire reflects that his experiences in Rwanda took a personal toll. Still, he feels an obligation to “travel back through all those terrible memories and retrieve my soul” (5). The purpose of this new mission is to write down his own personal story and the stories of those he knew. His intention is to testify for the victims and survivors of the Rwandan Genocide and to attempt to preserve the memories of those who tried to save lives in the midst of the tragedy.

Preface-Introduction Analysis

In the Preface and Introduction, Dallaire’s primary task is to explain why he wrote Shake Hands With The Devil. He emphasizes that he intends the book to be a “cri de coeur [cry from the heart] for the slaughtered thousands” and “the account of a few humans who were entrusted with the role of helping others taste the fruit of peace” (7). Although Dallaire describes how he was “the convenient scapegoat for all that had gone wrong in Rwanda” (xix), he does not intend to offer Shake Hands With The Devil as an apologia, meaning a book that exists to justify his actions. Instead, he writes about his “own guilt for the failures of the mission” (xix), reflecting on The Dilemma of Moral Culpability that he constantly faced during his service. It is clear that Dallaire’s emotions about what he experienced and how he responded remain complicated, and he frames his book by acknowledging the tension between his unresolved feelings and his sense of moral conviction.

Dallaire describes himself as simply putting into writing his own personal experience with the Rwandan Genocide. He stresses that he is writing the book not just for the sake of posterity, but also for people living in the present:

May this book help inspire people around the globe to rise above national interest and self-interest to recognize humanity for what it really is: a panoply of human beings who, in their essence, are the same. (xxii)

Dallaire is also writing for his home nation of Canada, “to assist Canadians in understanding the duty they and the nation owe to the soldiers who serve us, and to their families” (xiv). Above anything else, though, Dallaire says he intends the book as a warning and an exploration of the Causes of Genocide, especially as a call to action for governments to work toward preventing future atrocities like the Rwandan Genocide. This simultaneous declaration of intent and appeal to morality on the civilizational scale provides a clear framework for Dallaire’s following description of events. Dallaire situates his recounting as both historical record and cautionary tale, inviting the reader not just to witness the atrocities he describes, but to consider how they can and should be prevented by the international community. Dallaire’s anecdote about finding the murdered family and his desire to help the Rwandan child are an appeal to the compassion of his reader, meant to engage their sense of moral duty as they begin reading his account. The Preface and Introduction also serve to contextualize Dallaire’s recounting of his own childhood in Canada, which precedes his description of the events he witnessed in Rwanda.