Wednesday, December 12, 2012

All Boys, All Blogged: December 13, 2012

Focus: Discussing the resolution (or lack thereof?) of A Long Way Gone

Announcement: If you are choosing to take the vocabulary test today, you may do so at the very beginning of class.

1. Warm-up: Watching an interview with Ishmael Beah

  • What are your impressions of and reactions to this interview?
  • Please write down thing Beah says in this interview that you find significant.


2. Final fishbowl discussion: Chapter 20-end of A Long Way Gone

HW: Essay content revisions due tomorrow; work on final project.

71 comments:

  1. First post! Why do you guys think he ended the book with this story?

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    1. I think it shows how sometimes if violence is your only choice, its worth doing because it will help avoid more violence in the future.

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    2. I think it represented what the purpose of the book is.

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    3. IT was a good way to summarize the book. It showed how in his life he was often not given the chance to make a right decision. He often was faced that neither decision was good but one was slightly better then the other.

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    4. Well it shows that these horrible things are inevitable and are almost unavoidable, so you can either kill the monkey lose a family member but avoid horrible things for others or lose a family member, save the monkey, and give everyone else issues as well.

























































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    5. He wanted to show that he would risk his own childhood so that no other kid has to face the evils he did.



































































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    6. I think its shows Ishmael's selflessness. Neither of the choices he was faced with were good, and I think his decision had nothing to do with liking his dad more than his mom. It simply had to do with the fact that he wanted to save others from being in the same situation as him, just like he didn't want other boys to have to go through what he did as a boy soldier.

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    7. I think that he ended the book with a story because he wanted to end the book how his village ended the day. And with the same question that he was never able to answer.

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  2. Why is Ishmael not as sensitive about his past as he should be?

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    1. I think that Ishmael is not sensitive about what happened in his past because after completeing his memoir he was at terms with what happened, and chooses to share what happened to him with the rest of the world.

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    2. I think that it is because of the horrible things that he went through. He did all of this as a child and he was desensitized to the point that he thought that it was normal and when he learned that this wasn't a big topic and people didn't know what was really going on, he put it upon himself to teach the rest of the world the true story.

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    3. I think he has learned to accept it and because he was so open about it in his book, he can be less sensitive to it now and talk about it so easily.

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    4. He said in the interview that he is trying to live a positive second life.

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    5. because he wants to show the world what is going on and how bad it is.

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  3. Why does this book seem like such a fictional story even though it is real? Is it because Ishmael is such a good writer?

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    1. It is because we have never seen such brutal violence first hand. Though we are more violent then we were, we are not that violent so when we are told of such evil we have a hard time believing it is real. We cant rap our head around the idea of such brutal fighting.

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    2. It just seems to violent for anyone to experience. We will never fully understand how he was able to live through this. It may not seem believable to us because we wont experience an event like this.





















































































































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  4. During his trip to New York, What shaped his impressions? What influenced him during his time there?

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  5. jacks question was "do you think he would have writin this book if he never went to new york?" i think he would not have because he wouldn't have the resorses. Mabe if he did write it i dont think it would have goten published.

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    1. I agree with you but for different reasons. He wouldn't have had the education I don't think. It also wouldn't be as good a book because this is almost normal for these people and if he sold this book in Sierra Leone, the people wouldn't take him seriously because a good amount of people know what this is really about.

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  6. I think the story represents the fight or flight response. In the entire book, in every situation, he has only had two choices: fight, or flight. In the story, one can either stay and shoot the monkey, or leave. Either way, the hunter loses something close. I think Ishmael uses this in the last part because it shows what happened to him. Originally, he runs, and loses his family. Then, he stays and fights, and loses his humanity. When it finally seems that he has everything back, he runs again and loses the rest of his family escaping from Freetown.

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    1. I agree with Max because throughout the book he has to make these hard decision like running and losing his family or stay and die. He has to make choice that you and me will never have to make.

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    2. I think that this story can explain his reason for writing this story. He says that he would shoot the monkey so that "it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament" (Beah 218) I think that it means that if you tell the story, then it can help prevent others from doing the same mistake and hurting himself but if he didn't tell the story, then some people would die.

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  7. Freetown in this chapter. After the death of Beah’s uncle, he writes on page 209, “I have to try to get out, I thought, and if that doesn’t work, then it is back
    to the army.” Does this surprise you?

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  8. When Ishmael was interviewing with John Stewart, do you think it somewhat offended him when he talked about how he did the whole show with a cold? Do you think it makes him feel like his experience wasn't that scary or something

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  9. On the last story when Ishmael gives his final decision dose it show the true person he is with wanting no violence or death because he would rather kill his mom then have more people killed witch in my mind shows his true colors

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  10. do you think Ishmael is still desensitized to this day?

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    1. I think he is still desensitized but not as much as he used to be.


































































































































































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    2. No. In the interview he talks about how humans can regain their humanity. It is hard but he showed signs to me that he was normal again.

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  11. On page 198, Ishmael says "I thought I was dreaming" when he was in Times Square. If all of his dreams have been about his horrific past, why does he think that he is dreaming?

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    1. Maybe he was so shocked that the world outside of Sierra Leone is so peaceful and he had dream of a peaceful place instead of the violence he was accustomed to.

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    2. Maybe he is just so shocked that it isn't in misery that it seems unreal.

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    3. He might think he is dreaming because everything is so different and too good to be true. He's not sure whats real and what isn't.

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    4. Because he cant believe he is in such a big group with everyone being happy and it pry shocks him because most of the time hes in a big group he is killing, raping, and stealing from people so it is pry a big shock to him

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  12. Pg. 218"I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same position." Is Ishmael saying that he would sacrifice himself for the well being of others?

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    1. I think what Ishmael is saying is that someone has to sacrifice to let the rest survive. I do think that Ishmael would shoot just for the well being.

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    2. I think that he is saying that he would sacrifice himself so no one else would have to go through that.

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    3. He is willing to sacrifice his own family to save someone else's, not himself.























































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  13. With him going to New York and seeing how non violent it is compared to what he though is that mostly from the rap because rap tells about gangbangers, hookers, drugs, and lots of murder why would he want to go there if he thought it was like that because that's kind of what Sierra Leon is like so why would he want to go the the same type of envoiorment in an different place

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    1. I think Sierra Leone is a lot worse than that he is in a very safe place in comparison.

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  14. On page 215 Ishmael says, "I clinched my fist to hold back my anger." How often do you think he will have to do this in his new life?

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    1. I think that he will have to do it quite a bit but i think that as time goes on he will learn to manage it better.

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    2. Once he adjusted to his new life I believe he would be able to keep control of his anger.

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    3. I agree with Rob, If he can hold his anger back in these crazy times then he will be fine at controlling his anger.

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    4. He has learned to control his anger. I think all of us could learn from Ishmael.

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  15. Pg. 218"I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same position." do you think that this represents what kind of solder Ishmael was in the war?

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    1. I think he is willing to sacrifice his happiness in order to save the emotional distress of someone else.

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  16. bryce has a very good thought on the monkey consept about if you shot the monkey its like joining the rebels and if you dont your going to join the army. i agree with this i didnt think of it that way till now. why do you think Ishmael ended the book with this.












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  17. On page 205 he says, " I was getting furious, but I tried to contain myself, because I knew I couldn't afford to lose my temper. The result would be death, since I was now a civilian." What would he have done if he lost his temper?

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    1. He probably would have freaked out and gone back to military mode and done some things he would have regretted in the end.

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  18. On page 212, Beah writes, “It sickened me to see that Sierra Leoneans asked money from those who had come from the war. They were benefiting from people who were running
    for their lives.” Can you think of other examples of people who should be supporting one another instead exploiting one another? Why does this happen?

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  19. On pages 217-218 it says, "Every child who was present at the gathering was asked to give an answer, but no child ever did, since their mother and father were both present." Do you think Ishmael would have had the same answer or even an answer at all if his parents were still alive?

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    1. He said that he came up with that answer when he was 7. When both his parents were alive. It was more of a way showing what kind of person he was and how selfless he is instead of saying that he would want to kill his mother.

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  20. on page 212 it says "I will kill you if I want to and nothing will come of it" does he mean that he can kill someone but in reality nothing good will come from it. what do you think?

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  21. on pg. 207 it sayed " children played guessing games, telling each other whether the gun fired was a ak-47, a g3, and rpg, or a machine gun." Does this show that there is no humanity left, that kids find enjoyment and games out of the violence. That the country has fallen apart.

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  22. On page 199,"I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family." Do you think Ishmael will ever avenge their death to a sense?

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  23. On page 209 Ishmael says, "I had only a small dirty bag containing a few clothes." he then goes on to explain that he couldn't take a big or fancy bag because i could get him shoot. How much would you give up to get out of a war torn country?

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    1. I would do what I had to do, much like Ishmael. He only had one option which was to run. If he had stayed, he would have either become a child soldier or would have been killed

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    2. I would do everything and anything.

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  24. The last reference to music is on page 199-200. Ishmael says "Then we began to sing other songs; we cried, we laughed, and we danced...Madoka and I put our arms around each other and jumped around to the music." Is it slightly ironic that Ishmael is away from his home, but having a good time, yet as soon as he returns to Sierra Leone, the music stops and he is thrown into another nightmare?

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  25. Why does the book focus so much on his life as a civilian?

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  26. How hard do you think it was for Ishmael Beah to write this book?

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    1. I think it was very difficult for him to write this but I feel like his motivation to write this book was to do justice for all the boy soldiers and to inform people of the terrible things they had to go through.

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  27. Pg. 214 "I smiled a bit and the soldier laughed at me." Why did the he laugh at Ishmael for smiling? It must have been hard enough for him to smile after everything he has been through.

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  28. On page 201 it says, "Mohamed and I started school again... I was excited." Why is he excited to start school most kids his age would like to get out of school what does it bring that makes him like it so much?

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  29. On page 216 "I wanted to tell him I had no place to stay" Why do you think he didn't ask the guy if he could stay with him?

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