I have been reading actively, highlighting all important words, both books are interesting, writing is best in Cisneros, but it has a lot of deviations, Chapters are small and each chapter has a different story and a lesson to be learned. I loved A long way gone, it gets me totally involved into the story that once I start to read I feel like finishing the book. Yesterday I read onto chapter 13, the story is narrated with so much perfection that it kept me reading for hours and then I have to come back to the given chapters of the week and glance it again so that I can highlight any important word or sentence.
My title for Chapter 8 will be, "Alone in the Dark". I choose this title because Ishmael was alone in a forest for a month in such dark and despair times of his life.
In this chapter Ishmael is on his own now walking for two days through burnt bodies, abandoned villages, scattered leaves. On the third day he found that he was lost in the middle of the dense forest. He made his new home near a tree and fed on unusual ripe fruit, where he thought about his trip with his grandfather, showing him uses of important medicinal trees. One evening he was chased by wild pigs and had to run for a mile. He spent more than a month in the forest until one day he saw a group of boys who were from his old school in Mattru Jong. He went along with the boys, they were called "Seven Boys" as they were misunderstood as rebels, to the next village where they saw an old man who fed them and gave directions to a safe place called Yele.
Indelibly- Forgotten or something which cannot be eliminated.
Among many, this theme specifically stood out for me, when Ishmael and his friends came across an old man in the middle of the village, he offered them food and said that 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. Hope that you boys can find safety before this untrustworthiness and fear cause someone to harm you. This shows how time changes everyone they cannot believe or trust even a 12 year old boy who is running for his life. At the end of the chapter he said how men kept an eye on them when they stopped in crowded villages and mothers would grab their children and run away seeing them.
I definitely agree with your title! I could not imagine living in the forest for over a month before having contact with other humans, especially the situation/life Ishmael is living in.
ReplyDeleteI also thought your word choice of indelibly was interesting too. Impossible to remove or forget - my first thought would be a bad memory.
Yes,I can't imagine how he lived alone in a forest that long.
DeleteGlad you are really into the book. I love your title. Thank you for the word I did not know that one. The old man in this chapter was very important. It was very sad but a happy time. Its happy that the man know his time is near and he doesn't let it bring him down. I think its sad because I would leave him behind.
ReplyDeleteGreat title choice Mohammed. it does make a lot of sense considering he spends most of the chapter alone in the forest. I also thought your thoughts about the old man similar to my initial thoughts. It reminds me of when my parents and grandparents say that they remember the good old days to distract them from all the bad that is going on right now in the world whatever it may be.
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ReplyDeleteAnd the best part was the old man was not at all afraid when the boys came near, the calmness and kindness shown by the old man towards Ishmael and his friends was a great gesture and how he told him to remember him as a memory, which Ishmael actually did years later in his book.
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