My active reading is going pretty well. I believe I develop more of an understanding when writing out margin notes and highlighting key passages. At first, I had many hesitations. I read a lot, sometimes so much so that I forget I also have to keep up a social life, so writing in the books, especially highlighting, was very hard to start doing. Currently, I don't flinch every time the pencil or highlighter touches the paper, but it's going to be awhile before I get the courage to use a pen.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah does an amazing job at imagery and being able to move the reader with his words, the sentence lengths, where the paragraphs pause, etc. He is an extremely talented writer, although I feel that the book would be somewhat stronger with chapter titles. Sometimes it's hard to pluck out the meaning/topic of the chapter, so titles would help anyone who is reading it either just because, for research, or for a class. The House On Mango Street has many strengths, but the biggest one is most definitely the figurative language that Cisneros loads into each chapter. Another strength I believe that the book possesses is the creativity of the chapter titles. They're so unique and tend to summarize the chapter perfectly. A weakness in the book is the voice. I feel that the voice of Esperanza isn't as childish as it could be.
One of the themes I noticed in A Long Way Gone was trust. Trust, or lack thereof, was the focal point in chapter six. I feel that this theme is specifically important because it shows how quickly one's trust can disappear in either trauma, a pressuring situation, or just in general. Family can turn on family, friends on friends, neighbors on neighbors. On page 37, Beah writes "People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you." I believe that quote captures the theme perfectly.
I agree with the theme trust. And how one's trust can just disappear in the matter of time because something traumatic happens. Trust is talked about throughout this whole book because it is a big part of it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is definitely one of the bigger themes of the book.
DeleteI also think that that it is very easy to understand what is going on in A Long Way Gone because of the imagery. It helps to understand exactly what the character is going through.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Imagery is one of Beah's strengths as a writer and the way he shapes his words and the fact that he doesn't sugar coat anything in the book helps the reader to better understand what's going on and feel some of what Beah was/is feeling.
DeleteHey Bekah.
ReplyDeleteI agree that trust was a main theme in chapter six of Beah. One example that happened to Beah and his friends was getting captured by the villagers. they were stripped and tied up. The villagers did not trust the boys because they heard rumors of young boys to be child soldiers, and that ransacked villages. I believe that this example exemplifies that people lose trust in others during time of distress or war.
Yes! That's one of the examples I was looking at when writing this post. That scene definitely amplifies the theme of trust well.
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