The Cellist of Sarajevo

by

Steven Galloway

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Cellist of Sarajevo makes teaching easy.

Dragan Character Analysis

An elderly bakery worker, Dragan has become emotionally closed-off as a way of protecting himself from the trauma of war. After sending his wife, Raza, and son, Davor, to live safely in Italy, Dragan isolates himself in the city. He reawakens to his own emotions after running into his old friend Emina. Galloway points out that the harsh circumstances of the war have forced people to put up walls, but that a successful end to the war requires that people continue to connect with one another. Dragan hopes to be part of the group that rebuilds Sarajevo after the war. During the war, Dragan hopes to show a better image of Sarajevo to the world, acknowledging that the world should know of the atrocities that are happening in this city, but insisting that Sarajevo is not an abandoned wasteland with no chance of returning to its former state of tolerance and peace.

Dragan Quotes in The Cellist of Sarajevo

The The Cellist of Sarajevo quotes below are all either spoken by Dragan or refer to Dragan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War, Civilians, and Humanity Theme Icon
).
One: Dragan Quotes

Now, after all that has happened, Dragan knows that the Sarajevo he remembers, the city he grew up in and was proud of and happy with, likely never existed. If he looks around him, it's hard to see what once was, or maybe was. More and more it seems like there has never been anything here but the men on the hills with guns and bombs. Somehow that doesn't seem right either, yet these are the only two options.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

He's stopped talking to his friends, visits no one, avoids those who come to visit him. At work he says as little as possible. He can perhaps learn to bear the destruction of buildings, but the destruction of the living is too much for him. If people are going to be taken away from him, either through death or a transformation of their personality that makes them into strangers, then he's better off without them.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Two: Dragan Quotes

“The last time I saw him, he told me, 'What is coming is worse than anything you can imagine,’” Dragan says. “He killed himself the day the war began.”

Emina shakes her head. “This cannot be as bad as what happened in those camps.”
Dragan considers this, wonders how relative suffering is. “No, it's not. I don't think he thought it would be. But I think he believed that what he and others suffered there meant something, that people had learned from it. But they haven't.”

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina (speaker)
Page Number: 74-75
Explanation and Analysis:

"I can't remember if we were like that, or just think we were. It seems impossible to remember what things were like." And he suspects this is what the men on the hills want most. They would, of course, like to kill them all, but if they can't, they would like to make them forget how they used to be, how civilized people act. He wonders how long it will take before they succeed.

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Two: Dragan (Part 2) Quotes

"Who is he playing for?" she asks again, and suddenly Dragan thinks he knows.
"Maybe he's playing for himself," he says. "Maybe it's all he knows how to do, and he's not doing it to make something happen." And he thinks this is true. What the cellist wants isn't a change, or to set things right again, but to stop things from getting worse. Because, as the optimist in Emina's mother's joke said, it can always get worse. But perhaps the only thing that will stop it from getting worse is people doing the things they know how to do.

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Cellist
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:

She is the person he once knew: Affected by the war, changed, but the woman he knew is still in there. She hasn't been covered in the gray that colors the streets. He wonders why he hasn't seen this before, wonders how much else he hasn't seen.

Related Characters: Dragan, Emina
Related Symbols: Gray
Page Number: 116
Explanation and Analysis:
Three: Dragan (Part 2) Quotes

He looks across the street and sees the cameraman staring at him, his mouth open. His camera is in his hands, but not on his shoulder. It hasn't captured him, or the body of the hatless man.
Good, he thinks. I will not live in a city where dead bodies lie abandoned in the streets, and you will not tell the world I do.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dragan Quotes in The Cellist of Sarajevo

The The Cellist of Sarajevo quotes below are all either spoken by Dragan or refer to Dragan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War, Civilians, and Humanity Theme Icon
).
One: Dragan Quotes

Now, after all that has happened, Dragan knows that the Sarajevo he remembers, the city he grew up in and was proud of and happy with, likely never existed. If he looks around him, it's hard to see what once was, or maybe was. More and more it seems like there has never been anything here but the men on the hills with guns and bombs. Somehow that doesn't seem right either, yet these are the only two options.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

He's stopped talking to his friends, visits no one, avoids those who come to visit him. At work he says as little as possible. He can perhaps learn to bear the destruction of buildings, but the destruction of the living is too much for him. If people are going to be taken away from him, either through death or a transformation of their personality that makes them into strangers, then he's better off without them.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Two: Dragan Quotes

“The last time I saw him, he told me, 'What is coming is worse than anything you can imagine,’” Dragan says. “He killed himself the day the war began.”

Emina shakes her head. “This cannot be as bad as what happened in those camps.”
Dragan considers this, wonders how relative suffering is. “No, it's not. I don't think he thought it would be. But I think he believed that what he and others suffered there meant something, that people had learned from it. But they haven't.”

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina (speaker)
Page Number: 74-75
Explanation and Analysis:

"I can't remember if we were like that, or just think we were. It seems impossible to remember what things were like." And he suspects this is what the men on the hills want most. They would, of course, like to kill them all, but if they can't, they would like to make them forget how they used to be, how civilized people act. He wonders how long it will take before they succeed.

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Two: Dragan (Part 2) Quotes

"Who is he playing for?" she asks again, and suddenly Dragan thinks he knows.
"Maybe he's playing for himself," he says. "Maybe it's all he knows how to do, and he's not doing it to make something happen." And he thinks this is true. What the cellist wants isn't a change, or to set things right again, but to stop things from getting worse. Because, as the optimist in Emina's mother's joke said, it can always get worse. But perhaps the only thing that will stop it from getting worse is people doing the things they know how to do.

Related Characters: Dragan (speaker), Emina (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Cellist
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:

She is the person he once knew: Affected by the war, changed, but the woman he knew is still in there. She hasn't been covered in the gray that colors the streets. He wonders why he hasn't seen this before, wonders how much else he hasn't seen.

Related Characters: Dragan, Emina
Related Symbols: Gray
Page Number: 116
Explanation and Analysis:
Three: Dragan (Part 2) Quotes

He looks across the street and sees the cameraman staring at him, his mouth open. His camera is in his hands, but not on his shoulder. It hasn't captured him, or the body of the hatless man.
Good, he thinks. I will not live in a city where dead bodies lie abandoned in the streets, and you will not tell the world I do.

Related Characters: Dragan
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis: