Kidder opens Mountains Beyond Mountains with an account of a discussion between Paul Farmer and a U. S. army captain who was commanding a small peacekeeping force
in Haiti. Farmer and the captain initially discuss a recent murder case in the area, and
then move on to discuss the role of the U. S. in Haiti. While the U. S. Army troops had
been stationed in Haiti to reinstate the country’s democratically elected government and to curb political violence, some of the soldiers were cynical about the effects of their presence in the country. In his reflections on the work of the soldiers, Kidder acknowledges that he shared the soldiers’ pessimism, believing that they “had done their best” and that they “would not cry over things beyond their control” in Haiti (page 8).
Why do you think that Kidder opens his book with this scene?