Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A Long Way Gone 1
While reading A Long Way Gone, I discovered that I related to the characters very well. The main characters are teenagers and are interested in some of the same things that I am. They talk with each other, and their hobbies include listening to music that appeals to them and learning hip-hop dance steps. However, the lives that the main characters lead are harder lives than mine. They have to be very careful concerning money and food. For example, they walk multiple miles to the nearby village where they are going to go to an event concerning the music they listened to. They walked in order to save the money that would have cost them to take a car. When I go someplace, I almost always take a car (unless it is very close to where I live) and I do not even think twice about it. The characters live in Africa and they are plagued with war in their country, in their villages. I felt that the book was quite sad, especially when describing the pain, both physical and emotional, that people were going through. however, I do think that this book is a very interesting story and I look forward to reading more.
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3 comments:
It's interesting that you say this, because I was thinking the same thing. The boys are so strong - whether it is because they grew up this way, living hard, or because they are just strong-spirited. Whatever the reason, they keep going, sometimes without even a hope, just pressing on.
This book does really put everything into perspective about just how lucky we are in America. Like you said, we never think twice about hopping into the car and going somewhere. It is just makes you want to step back and look at how much we may complain and wine, we really have it pretty good here!
Does reading about Ishmael's childhood and thinking about your own childhood experiences affect you? Do you think that you could have survived in the conditions that Ishmael does? The one thing that I keep asking myself is whether or not I could have done what he has done. Would I have given up or kept fighting. It is so hard to imagine a young child carrying an automatic weapon around and shooting others in order to survive. I often wonder how he survived not just physically by emotionally and spiritually.
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