A Long Way Gone #1

Quote: Page- 19 Paragraph-3 "A shudder racked my body, and i tried to thinking about my new like in New York City where I had been for over a month. But my mind wandered back across the Atlantic ocean to Sierra Leone. " Ishmael Significance: This shows a hardship that Ishmael had to face when he came to the U.S. He had to face having to remember those terrible days he spent a soldier back in Africa. This shows that these things scar people for life and you can't just forget about them even if you start a whole new life in another country. Personal Connection: I can connect with this quote because when my parents got a divorce it kind of affected my life for good. I couldn't sit there and forget that it happened all I could do was accept the fact that things didn't work out and it wasn't at all my fault. My experience isn't any where as bad as Ishmael's but I'm just saying that he could chose to make the same decision of accepting that the war wasn't his fault and him having to go through those types of things was for a reason. And the best thing for him to do would be just move on with his life and not let that hold him back like I had to do with my parent's divorce. Question: Why do you think the author decided to right in present tense in only the second chapter? Quote: Page-23 Paragraph- 2 "When the Rebels finally came, I was cooking................." "It is just the soldiers testing their weapons" Ishamael and One of the friends Significance: The first quote shows that while the kids were traveling trying to keep away from the Rebels, Ishmael took over the lead role and was acting as the parent sort of. He was cooking for every one and was probably the only one that actually knew how to cook. It also shows how every one looks up to him in a way and will follow what he says. Character Judgment: I don't think that every one that was in the house made a wise choice to just decide that nothing was going. I think that if they would have realized that it was the soldiers they would have been able to hide and that would have avoided them a lot more danger. So over all I think they could have made a more wise decision than that especially if they had been waiting for the Rebels to come. Question: What do you think a better way would have been for those characters to react to the first gun shots they herd?