Hello Class,
It's Meg. I have decided to take this opportunity to set an example of what
your post should look like.
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"On our way through the quiet and almost barren town, which now seemed
unfamiliar, we saw rotten pots of food that had been left behind" (27).
Here, in Chapter 4, Beah is describing his experience returning to Mattru Jong,
his hometown, after the rebels have attacked, killing its citizens,
disseminating its buildings, and setting fires. At this point, Ishmael is
unclear if his family is alive or travels in hiding through the jungle. Ishmael
and his friends return to Mattru Jong to find the money they had left behind to
buy food. At this point they are starving.
This line describes the boys' hometown of Mattru Jong, which "now seemed
unfamiliar" to them. The wording of this strikes me as unnerving, scary,
and ironic for many reasons. The boys are returning to a home which, for them,
should mean safety and security, but at this moment represents death and
danger. The wording of the "quiet and almost barren town" and the "rotten
pots of food" show the effect that the rebels have had on the town. The
image of rotting food is also ironic, because this is the item that the boys
are searching for. The citizens of the town had to run from their homes,
leaving their food on the table. They were provoked to flee, and now these boys
see the aftermath. There is a great deal of unfamiliarity with this place which
they had known so well. The boys are fearful, confused and hungry.
It must be hard for someone who is starving to see abandoned and spoiled food,
and even harder to know the reason why the food was abandoned. I wonder, did
Ismael walk around pondering the fate of everyone in the town at this moment?
Was he still hopeful that his family was alive?
Also, I can't help but think back to my original idea about home symbolizing
safety and security, when in reality there are many people in the world, and in
our own country, who live in an unsafe home. Before the rebels came to
Ishmael's town, his description of his everyday life was positive, supportive
and happy.
“We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to. That night we were so hungry that we stole people’s food while they slept. It was the only way to get through the night.” (29) At the end of Chapter four, Ishmael and all his friends and brother were so starved from having absolutely nothing to eat they had steal it from the people in the village they had just gotten too. That day they walked miles back to Mattru Jong their home to get money they had hidden at Khalilou’s house for food. They saw dead bodies everywhere and everything in their town was pretty much destroyed. As they were getting out of the town there was a loud noise and it drew attention to the rebels who started running and shooting at them. Ishmael, his brother and friends all made it to the town they were headed to safely but were starved. They tried to buy food with the money that they had gone to all the trouble to get but everyone was saving their food incase something bad was going to happen. Then ended up stealing food to survive that night.
ReplyDeleteThis sentence shows how Ishmael is realizing he needs to improve and learn more “survival tactics” if he really does want to stay alive throughout the civil war he is having to live through, and throughout the book you can tell how passionate he his about staying alive. I look up too Ishmael and his friends they have so much strength I think it is insane how they have survived thus far and how many bullets they have dodged. I feel like I would have been one of the people who died in the first chapter.
By reading the book you can tell that these kids would never steal anything from anyone but that night the only way to survive was to steal food from innocent people.
"I pray to the gods and ancestors that my family will always be together.” He looked at us, my mother held my little brother, and Junior and I stood next to each other with toffee in our mouths.Page 50.Chapter 7 This is showing that the feeling how much they missed understand. What was take there fear there lost has change them around.
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