Nathan

Journal Entry #1

Mattru Jong
(One of the villages visited by Ishmael Beah and were he
attended school. It is also were he was when his village
was attacked)

I am now about a quarter done the book A Long Way Gone and the book has already showed how different life is for some people in other countries. The book was surprisingly fast past,  within the first couple pages of the book it was already talking about how his family is most likely dead and he talked about how he saw people carrying the dead bodies of their sons and babies that were killed while fleeing the villages attacked by the rebels. The way Ishmael Beah describes what he saw, all the death and sadness, is very blunt and emotionless as though he no longer feels pain for them. This may be due to something that might have happened to him later in his journey that i have not reached yet. The sadness of his life truly helps me realize just how lucky I and other people living in peaceful and highly developed countries like Canada are.

In the story he mentions how the rebels are fighting "for the people" or so they say and that they cut off all the fingers but not the thump of the messenger that came to Mattru Jong to say how the rebels were coming because this was like a thumps up that meant peace before the war. Its really interesting to hear of these rebels who believe they are killing families and destroying villages  because it helps the people. Its hard to understand how they believe they are helping them by killing their families and ruining their lively hoods and it seems that its all just a mad attempt to have power by someone who want to convince others that they are helping so he can gain power and allies.

The story is extremely sad right from the start and continues threw it and it shows how a country changes and how war brings out the worst in people but also the kindness in those who still hold on to those beliefs while in times of war. Such as how no matter where Ishmael goes in Sierra Leone everyone thinks he is a out to hurt them and no one trusts each other due to all the rebels and killings around the country. However their are still a few people, generally the elder people of Sierra Leone that still help him despite the circumstances. One old man they met on their travels in a deserted village said to them ``My children, this country has lost its good heart. People don`t trust each other anymore. Years ago, you would have been heartily welcomed in this village. I hope that you boys find safety before this untrustworthiness and fear causes someone to harm you`` (56). This quote showed just how much the country's people had changed due to the terror and fear of war and how their is still those who will help you despite how you may have been an rebel. The story seems to have many messages that underline the main story such as how their is always a light in the darkness or that its important to speak up about the wrongs committed in this world. I also believe it makes the point of never giving up even if its the odds are tremendously against you because you just might succeed.

This is what i have picked up on within the first quarter of the book however these are just how i perceived the story and may not be what other group members may think.
-Nathan Brown
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Journal Entry #2

This book continues to amaze me as they make their journey to find safety. I have got to a part where Ismael and the group of boys hes with reached the Ocean and he mentions how beautiful it is and its interesting to see that despite the events that have transpired on his journey to this point he still sees beauty in nature such as the moon that he mentioned earlier and now the ocean. However when he got his sandals taken by the tribe on the beach he talked about how the sand burned their feet horrible. This seems almost ironic that he mentions how beautiful it is only to have the sands scorch his feet. This seems to be the pattern in this book, how he always sees something that is beautiful or anything good happens just to have it turn into something that is harmful or for something bad to happen after. Such as when a fisherman was helping heal their feet after their long walk on the burning sand just to be captured by the village again.

Ishmael and the group of boys were brought back to the village and were going to be thrown into the ocean to drown however his rape tap fell out and Ishmael explained that he was a student and was in a dance group. The villager chief let them go after this, thats the second time that the taps have saved their lives and its interesting to see that something so insignificant before the war would be the only thing to save their lives twice.

Finally for once in this story Ishmael and the group of boys arrive at a village that is welcoming and full of happy people and they invite them in celebration and to eat and hunt. This village seems to be unscarred by the war that has yet to reach its front door yet despite this Ishmael cant seem to be happy showing that he has come to reality that something bad will still happen or that the war is far from over and that the celebrations wont last. Not long after this Saidu dies in his sleep and this seems like almost a happy ending to a bad story as he passed away in not a way that was violent or really painful as i would have expected. Also Ishmael talks about the moon again saying how it hides behind the cloud so it wont see what is happening. I think that the moon has become perhaps a guardian angel to Ishmael because its always their looking over him no madder what and hasn't left him since this journey for safety has started.

-Nathan Brown
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Journal Entry #3

The story once again dangles a little hope before Ishmael only to have it turn out horribly. Ishmael had heard word of his family being alive and in the next village as well as his brother Junior being alive and with them. This seemed like perhaps a change of events to something more happy however as we have seen earlier in this book it cant be so. As Ishmael reaches the village the rebels had just attacked and when he reaches the house his family was in he finds in burned and all that is left of his family is ashes. This i think is worst then if he never heard word of his family being alive because he had time to deal with the wounds of his family dieing and come to acceptance only to have this close encounter with them to reopen old wounds that have now been confirmed.

Ishmael time in the army was interesting because even though he became a member of the Sierra Leone Army and not the rebel army they still brainwashed him to make him kill. They gave him drugs to make him addicted to it so he would stay with the army and so they could change his views of those they were against. It surprises me that a government would do this to its own people, let alone kids. The fact that Ishmael talked about how after the first kills it all became the same and he no longer felt pain or sorrow for the deeds in which he did and that now he had become something else and he was no longer a child although it seems that this happened long before the army brainwashed him. I think the fact that he no longer felt any sorrow for those who he killed shows that human nature can be altered to do whatever one pleases if influenced by the right things such as drugs in this case. For instance a child raised in a violent way is more likely to be a violent person then one unaffected. Its scary to think that people can change this much and become something different then they once where.

-Nathan Brown
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Journal Entry #4

UNICEF coming in and picking people who would go to the rehabilitation camps was odd as they simply picked people and how some of Ishmael's friends were left behind because they had become to old or to far gone to be saved. How they were brought by UNICEF to these camps to try to change them back to who they use to be was amazing. Not that UNICEF was doing this, although i had no idea UNICEF was this involved, but how they would fight and act against those who were trying everything they could simply to help them. Esther was perhaps my favorite character in this book as she was almost the kind mother figure that had left Ishmael's life. She reintroduced rap music into his life as a way to bring him back and they got along well. However news of her suicide at the end of the book really made me sad as someone who did such good and cared so deeply would be pushed to such a limit. It shows that being put with the burden of hundreds of shattered lives in nothing that someone should take on alone no matter how strong you are.

Ishmael here after getting better mentioned how he again turned to the moon and he saw again the faces they he saw as a child. This has made me come to a conclusion as to what exactly i think the moon has become. I believe the moon has become everyone he was lost looking over him, his family and grandmother and friends, all keeping an eye on him and waiting for him no madder what happened. This way when ever he sees the moon no matter where he is he will see those he lost and those he loved permanent memorialized within the stone surface of the moon.

Ishmael finally leaving Sierra Leone for New York City was, in my opinion, perfect. I think that leaving Sierra Leone was the best for him because if he stayed the faces of the people and the news of the war would cause memories that he must over come to resurface and in New York City these stories would have a harder time reaching him allowing him to heal and move on. I think that Ishmael did an amazing thing by telling this story because it is people who don't tell their stories that allow these things to go unnoticed. I personally would never have known the length the war was at and just how bad it affecting people and how it destroyed lives and family's and an entire country. Ishmael telling this story allows me and others to realize just how lucky we are and what is happening beyond our front doors that we are to blind or ignorant to notice or care about.

-Nathan Brown