Epiphanies

During the civil war Ishmael became more distant from his family and friends. I think the war itself was an epiphany for everyone living in Sierra Leone. It was a life changing event that scarred Ishmael for life. During the war he became isolated and preferred traveling by himself instead of groups. I understand why he would prefer to travel alone because people feared groups that maybe the rebels, mostly if it was a group of boys.Everyone was already cautious, anyone could have been a rebel or a spy, there was no trust not even for people that they knew themselves. I think it was smart for Ishmael to want to travel alone because even when he was with his brother and friends everyone seemed like they were in their own world, and traveling in a group made it harder for villages to accept that they are not rebels. Not knowing where your loved ones are is challenging and loneliness is the worst part in traveling alone but there is a better chance of survival, since food resources are scarce if you are travelling in a larger group there are more people to feed and little is available for yourself. In conclusion the change of heart and Ishmael's personality has it's pros and cons.

-ryan

Third Post: Epiphanies

I think one major epiphany that I think that occurred in Ishmael's life was his parent's divorce. Many things changed for him, everyone in the town talked about Junior and Ishmael in a pitiful way and make remarks such as " those poor kids", this frustrated and angered the boys. I think when Junior and Ishmael dance and rap as a gateway to relax and forget about the stress of their parents divorce, because they are always happy and seem to forget everything else except for enjoying the music. The knowledge of their parents divorce will always be there no matter how hard they try to forget. I think that Ishmael was bottling these feelings inside but when all the stress came during the war, the negative thoughts and emotions came out as well. "I pressed my fingers on my eyelid to hold back tears and wished that i could have my family together again"-pg45

-lnh

Epiphanies

Ishmael has a persistent state of mind, as his father once told him "If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die." Even by himself in the forest, he is able to survive in the wilderness. He makes it out of the forest and meets six boys, who tell them they are headed for Yele, where Sierre Leone Armed Forces have occupied. I think this is not a good move, and that the Armed Forces will do horrible acts to them. I think going to this village will change Ishmael into a ruthless, mindless child soldier.

Ishmael

Ishmael is the protagonist of the story. In the beginning of the story, he appears to be social and outgoing, rapping with his friends and going to a talent show. Faced with the attack of the rebels, he has become more desperate to survive and less innocent. This is the nature of people struck with tragedy. People will do whatever it takes to satisfy themselves, and it becomes harder to sympathize with others. He and his friends steal corn from a boy and take food from fields. I think that the rebels' attack has caused a great change in personality, and Ishmael would be convinced to join the National Army. There may be other times in the novel where his traits may change back...

Frank Lin

Journal #2 (ch2-5) -- hjc

Experiencing horrific war scenes during early ages has scared Ishmael for life. While he is dreaming, he dreams of him pushing a wheelbarrow with his own body shot from top to bottom. Since the R.U.F took much longer then they anticipated, sense of peace was visible in many parts of the village. Before the R.U.F arrived in the village of Mattru Jong I thought of them as soldiers fighting for the people. However, when they arrived in Mattru Jong they were ruthless against the villagers. Using timing tactics to trick the villagers, shooting innocent citizens, gathering women and children to use as shiled during battle was inhumane. While reading chapter 4, I was clearly able to see the effect of setting on characters. Due to severe hunger, Ishamel and his friends were starting to lose their moral. They steal and they never stop to help others for it might mean the loss of their own lives. They were even so desperate that when they came across a little boy eating two ears of corn, they would steal it. Reading this effect of setting made me think how I would act like if I was in such horrific situation. I felt great amount of sympathy for these boys who have to constantly fight for their lives when they should be pursuing their passion of singing rap music

Second Post:Introduction to Characters

At the begging of the story the protagonist has a very bubbly personality. He seems to be enjoying his life as but as the story goes on. His personality is effected by the war dramatically. He is more worry-some scared and paranoid. Living in fear and hunger drives him and everyone else to be more isolated from one another even his own brother. How can something be fine one day but in a blink of an eye be a disaster the next. Personalities changes as people are more stressed, like Ishmael who is slowly growing distant from his family n friends and is stressing about food, a safe place to stay his family and mostly himself.

-lnh

My First Impression -hjc #1

The first chapter of the book discusses about the young Ishmael who is running away from the war that is happening in his homeland. He has lost his home and fate of remainder of his family is unknown. Not knowing the existence of his family and friends must feel horrific. As Ishmael traveled away from the war he must have felt lost and heartbroken. This made me really appreciate that I live in a country where I do not have fear of being involved in war and realize the importance of my family and friends for being beside me. After reading the first chapter of the book I felt sympathy for Ishmael and his friends because they could not complete their dream of competing in the competition they were wanting to participate so badly. The beginning of the war felt as if it was end of their childhood and beginning of horror they'll face. The first chapter really made it clear to me that the book is going to contain lots of violence on it. The description of the man who drove his family away from rebels while getting shot was appalling.

My first impressions

After reading the first chapter, as well as reading the descriptions on the book jacket, I have the impression that there will be a lot of violence in this story and that it will have a effect on Ishmael's life. His use of imagery is incredibly clear and paints a gruesome picture of the scene of war. In the first chapter we already see the horrifying sights of when the rebels attacked the village. To have all the things you enjoy, your childhood and your family taken away from you and to be forced into an army to kill people must be heartbreaking. It is even worse to think this is only the beginning of all the violence to happen. Ishmael is fortunate enough to be rescued and rehabilitated by UNICEF. It must also be really hard for a person to get over because they often will feel guilt for the rest of their lives for their acts in war. Since Beah witnessed the action firsthand, he is able to express his emotions and spread awareness for the plight of child soldiers. There are still over 300 000 children in this world who are still recruited as child soldiers. In a world where people are facing cruel situations every day, we need to value our life and appreciate all the things we have.

-Frank Lin

First Impressions

Before I read the book, I expected the story to go straight to violent war drama. As I was readin the introduction, it gave me the mood of a boy who has been through a series of violent activity throughout his childhood. Even looking at the cover of the book gave me the impression of a violent society with hostaged kids to be forced to be child soldiers. Seeing a boy holding a RPG missle, with an ak-47 on his back by himself showed me that the life of a child soldier is a lonely road. With no family and no one who loves you and to take care of you, your on a pathway through great warfare not only in war with other government soldiers, but war with the the soldiers in your own organization. It seems as if the children don't want to be in this situation, but is forced to. I felt sympathy as I was reading through this book. Reading about how a child wants to have a future with his friends but has to deal with the fact that rebel soldiers are invading villiages and could get closer to where this boy was. Dealing with the stress that knowing his home village got invaded would be tremendous. Think about if your hometown got invaded by an opposing force. What would you do? Would you go back and risk your life to find your family like the people in the book? Or would you go and save yourself and think that your whole family is gone? Not only reading the first chapter of the book that makes me ask these questions to myself, but looking at the graphic pictures makes me think about how life would be like in these developing countries. These are my first impressions.

-Ryan Le

First post: First Impressions

As I was reading through the few pages of the first chapter, I kind of got lost and confused. I may have miss read some parts of the story that may have mislead me. The part that confused me the most was the setting of the flashback. While the boys where waslking towards another town for the tallent show, it confused me how they went from thierown town, to thier grandmothers town, to seeing thier mother in diffrent places. I also was confused on which places were being attacked by the rebles, and how the protagonist found out about thier own town being attacked. Did they have phones or a way of communication?



-lnh

Introductory Post

Author: Ishmael Beah
Publisher: Douglas & Mcntyre Ltd.
Copyright Date: 2007 by Ishmael Beah
Number of Pages: 240 pages

Synopsis:
The United Nations estimates there are 300 000 child soldiers fighting in over fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah tells his story of being a child soldier during the Sierre Leone Civil War in 1993.

Book Trailer:

Link to Book Review: http://www.alongwaygone.com/reviews.html