Journal 5 By: Addison Stoneburner

     In chapter 17 in A Long Way Gone  Ishmael decided to go back to the hospital for rehabilitation. He meets a nurse named Esther. At first he would not talk to her because he did not trust anyone anymore. Esther gives him a Walkman and cassette tape to start showing him that she does care and he can trust her. She keeps the Walkman and cassette tape at the hospital so that he will look forward to coming back. When she examines him she asked how his bullet wounds were treated. He did not want to talk about but he told her anyways thinking that if she heard what happened to him she would be to disgusted to ask any more questions, but then he started to tell her all about his recent past. He finally starts to trust her and starts to believe that none of what happened was his fault.

     The main theme to me is "trust". Ishmael can not move on from what had happened he can not talk to anyone about it. Once he starts to trust Esther and tells her what all happened his migraines stopped and for the first time since he has been running away from the war he dreams of his family. This is really big mile stone for him and as he continues to open up to her he will only get better.

     Trusting people is hard for not just myself but for a lot of people. We end up realizing we can not trust some of the people we used to. But no matter what you still need someone you can trust because  if you can not talk to anyone then you can never improve.

He trusts that his father will catch him