Journal three: Jeremy

Jeremy Masteller





                                                                Journal Three


1. When it comes to my active reading it not to the level of what I normally do. While I find Beah worth having annotations, Mango is such a short book and very easy to read, that's a compliment though, that I really don't need to annotate any sentence that, not to be rude, a bloody middle schooler could understand. Beah needs it so that way you can keep track of what's going on in the story and big things of meaning happen but most books, as they supposed to do, is be able to be read by the masses so any "themes" don't really need thought since there right out in the open.

2. When it comes to Mango it does a really nice job of displaying the setting of everything in said section really well and we can understand the life there well. My main issue is that the introduction is a snippet of another book goes into her life, which as a reader the only person I care about realistically is her. So I find it a waste to read a book that only goes feet deep into a story versus belly deep. An extra note, I'm used to reading long books so having a book be about 100 pages, considering 20 are introduction is unsettling.

2b. I really don't have an issue with Beah at all. The book is a memoir so I sometimes question the validity of the book. In Cold Blood is known to twist the story, I question how much of it is true. I will say a very larger percentage is true but at what point does he/editor change the book to sell better? Especially as finicky as memories are.

2c. The winner is Beah, by a long shot because to me it's actually worth reading. Beah actually makes me compelled to learn about what happens.

3. One of the main themes of these chapter ad realistically of the whole book is the strength of togetherness. What do I mean by that? Well, many of the tribes/people no longer trust foreigners even though we know that this was not the case before the war. Because of the war, people separate themselves and begin to lose sympathy for others for the sake of their own protection. "I was glad to see other faces and at the same time disappointed that the war had destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people. Even a twelve-year-old boy couldn't be trusted anymore." Thus rationality is thrown out the window and impulsiveness flourishes.