long way gone finally gone

So lets talk about how crazy fast the Ismaels life changed as soon as her was basically adopted into a rebel.er, the boy soldiers get to behave like children, playing like how kids play. then seconds later they are given guns and taken off to battle. The loss of innocence is fast and disorienting. The description of his first war is a surreal experience: his vision is blurred and he often can't hear anything among the overwhelming noise. he also starts having to us the drugs to remain numb enough to do his job and survive. Ishmael's innocence is completely gone. He writes that the combination of the drugs made him fierce and that killing had become "as easy as drinking water." Brainwashing clearly is effective in the boys confusion of reality and it shows when the boys want to be respected for their soldiering, and they believe that by building fear in their caretakers they might gain their honor, and resort to violence because it is all that they know. The staff repeatedly reminds him that it is not his fault in the way he acts. One of the caretakers Esther gains the trust of Ismael, when he believes him for the first time that perhaps all that has happened to him and all the violence he's committed is not his fault. Esther's patience and kindness seem to be saving Ishmael from himself. Ishmael welcomes the opportunity to become a symbol for boy soldiers in Sierra Leone. This shows that he's not only ready to talk about his past but also perhaps even to move beyond it. Ishmael clearly took the next step in his life by writing this book and what do you think would have happened if he couldn't move on from his past life? Also do you think Ishmael had a PTSD and got over it in rehab? 

a long way gone post dos

To pass the time one night, Musa tells the story of Bra Spider who also struggled for food and survival. Listening to Musa's story reminds Ishmael of similar evenings listening to stories around his grandmother's campfire. Oral storytelling also plays a key role in the ceremonies and traditions of the village they had come from, and Ishmael is reminded of the tales told the night of his name-giving ceremony. the descriptions of the ceremony reveal a traditional culture with obvious male and female roles. The women prepare the food and dress to show off to each other. The men lead the ceremonies and smoke together (sounds kind of like native Americans prior to English settlement.). The gender roles are tested in these times of war as women have to learn to defend themselves and boys like Ishmael have to cook to survive. Even in desperate times, the burial customs are enforced. When Saidu dies, his body must be wrapped in white linen and placed in a wooden coffin. An elder man helps the boys have a funeral service and leads them to a burial ground. Saidu's body must be buried before nightfall or they must take the body from the village. The burial ground has row after row of mounds of freshly dug graves, many of them anonymous. Ishmael's grief and uncertainty overwhelm him. All of the boys are sad when they leave the village. Though he feels like he his abandoning his friend by leaving Saidu's body, he knows that they must continue travelling if they hope to live. This is kind of like in world war one how the soldiers would stop fighting to gather the dead from the battle field, I think that the burial customs that these boys held onto were the only thing that kept them glued together and moving as a unit. 

A long way gone post 1 yo

The book a long way gone is about boy soliders and what Ishmael had gone through, in his memoirs he uses various techniques to get his point across and tell his story. Compare and contrast are used to show Ishmaels concept of war before his village was attacked versus his confusion and terror when he has to deal with the truth of the civil war. The refugees that came to his village were exhausted, but it was their corrupted minds that seemed most damaged. He writes that even if he and his friends had been told the truth of what war would look like when it came to them, they would have refused to believe it. They simply didn't have the brain power to imagine the horrors. This comparison and contrast is effective because it establishes the child Ishmael was before in order to later contrast with the soldier Ishmael would become. Ishmael's village had been a peaceful place, and he remembers his pre-war childhood fondly. His loss of innocence is very violent. He recalls his grandmother's kindness and advice before the war. He's comforted still by her words.

                  

Rap music represents Ishmael's way into the modern world. He and his friends are mesmerized by its power and adopt the rap musicians' ways of speaking, dress, and behavior. (kinda like Jelly Joe) Rap becomes a way for them to express themselves through writing their own lyrics. They carry notebooks of songs and cassette tapes of their favorite groups so that they can always work together on their music. Flashback is used throughout Chapter 1 to reveal Ishmael's life before the rebels attacked his village. One flashback reveals that Ishmael's father is gone from his life and unable to afford to send him and his older brother to school. His mother defends their father's efforts but says he seems to ruin things by attracting the wrong kind of stepmothers. Ishmael and Junior's younger brother, Ibrahim, misses their father, too, but he is lucky to attend school. After he hears of the attack on Mogbwemo, Ishmael conjures terrible images of what might have happened to his mother, father, and younger brother.

Ragtime Post 3

Where have you been blog fanatics? Well let me fill you in on Coalhouse's story As the story builds to its climax, Coalhouse and his gang carry through on their plan to take over J.P. Morgan's library, holding the library's contents for ransom until their demands are met. Booker T. Washington and Father both help in the negotiations but Coalhouse is ultimately shot down by a trigger-happy police department.


So if I were to say a character was a shape would I be crazy? Well lets give this a try, say we have Coalhouse Walker, Tired of being treated differently because of his color, tired of being discriminated, tired of being tired. well he was narrowed down from an open man to a certain path of destruction, kind of like a triangle. lets think about a triangle long bottom then narrows to a tip. imagine the bottom is how coal house started, the Harlem musician trying to get back in to Sarah's life, then  One day, after leaving Sarah, Coalhouse is harassed by a local firehouse. They won't let him pass in his nice car without paying a toll, something Coalhouse refuses to do. He won't back down either, especially after his car is destroyed. Here his triangle is getting tighter towards the top then to make matters worse, Sarah goes to get help from the Vice President and The Secret Service doesn't take kindly to her approaching him, and they smack her in the chest with the butt of a rifle. Before you know it, Sarah's in a hospital dying, with Coalhouse by her side and revenge on his mind. Here comes the tip! So then Coalhouse and his gang of rebels decide to take over the library until their demands are met, but plot twist Coalhouse gets shot down by the police. The triangle of Coalhouse is more then a shape it is to show the narrowing of his aggression until he had to take action against injustice, ultimately leading to his demise.

Ragtime Post 2

the real story now though is about Coalhouse and Sarah, as things take a turn for the worse. One day, after leaving Sarah, Coalhouse is harassed by a local firehouse. They won't let him pass in his nice car without paying a toll, something Coalhouse refuses to do. He won't back down either, especially after his car is destroyed. Worse yet, he won't marry Sarah until the whole thing's resolved. Uh oh.

Upset that Coalhouse can't get justice and won't marry her until he does, Sarah goes to get help from the Vice President, who just happens to be in town. The Secret Service doesn't take kindly to her approaching him, and they smack her in the chest with the butt of a rifle. Before you know it, Sarah's in a hospital dying, with Coalhouse by her side... and revenge on his mind

              .

What does Coalhouse do? For starters, he destroys the volunteer firehouse, killing four firemen in the process. But Coalhouse is just getting started. He's got a gang now, including Mother's Younger Brother, and they've got big plans, including taking over J.P. Morgan's library. In the meantime they blow up a police station, with Mother's Younger Brother's help.

Now if i was in this situation, what would I do? Well me personally if I was Coalhouse I dont think i would jump straight into blowing things up. It would be difficult since he was trapped by the firemen but i would have lost my dignity and paid the fake toll. Not because you just have to deal with it but sometimes its the best bet to just do it because if your blocked in and no one can help and there's a way out, you take it and go. But lets say i didnt pay the toll and left the car there like Coalhouse if i came back to a destroyed car i would have probally started wrecking the firehouse like coalhouse, not burn it down but probally just things like destroying different vehicles and windows. This is because if no one will listen to you and no one can help sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. But as soon as my soon to be wife would get hurt and in the hospital thats when i would drop my revenge and stay by her side. But lets say i continued with the revenge plan, i dont think i would go and start a gang to begin a path of destruction.

Welcome to the early 1900s in New Rochelle, New York! There are a lot of characters to meet right off the bat, so sit back and make yourself comfortable. First there's an upper middle class family that includes Father, Mother, Grandfather, Mother's Younger Brother and Little Boy. 

Then there's Evelyn Nesbit, a famous model who Mother's Younger Brother is obsessed with, in a crazy love me way. There's Mameh, Tateh and Little Girl, a Jewish family trying to make ends meet on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. "Mameh" and "Tateh" mean "Mommy" and "Daddy" in Yiddish: .

Oh, and don't forget famous folks like J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford and Harry Houdini, the celebrated escape artist. They're going to figure in this story too.

It all begins in the summer, as Harry Houdini's car crashes in front of the upper middle class family's house. Did I mention the little boy has a man crush on Houdini. Well Houdini sticks around awhile and drinks some lemonade, before getting a cryptic message from Little Boy to "warn the Duke."

In the meantime, Evelyn Nesbit is preparing for the trial of her husband. You see, he killed her former lover, the architect Stanford White. Bored, Evelyn tours the Lower East Side, where she meets Tateh and Little Girl. Mameh's already out of the picture, because she slept with her employer to help pay the rent. Tateh kicked her to the curb, which isn't terribly kind of him.

Evelyn becomes obsessed with Little Girl and Tateh, who introduces her to Emma Goldman, the famous political activist. While Emma Goldman's giving Evelyn a massage, Mother's Younger Brother spies on them, but can't hide his presence for long. Despite the fact that he's basically a stalker, Evelyn starts dating him, after he pops out of her closet naked.I wonder why Evelyn decided to go out with a crazy stalker? Was she vulnerable?

Whew, got all that? Because now it really starts to get interesting. While Father's away at the North Pole on an expedition, Mother discovers a newborn black baby in the backyard. Rather than press charges against the baby's mother, Sarah, Mother lets her move in. Soon Coalhouse Walker Jr. (the baby's father and a Harlem musician) comes calling but Sarah won't see him. At least at first.

After playing hard to get for a while she comes around, and she and Coalhouse plan to get married.