In this last section of A Long Way Gone, written, and based on the life experiances of Ishmael Beah, this section of the book talks about the following topics: damages already caused by war, being retouched by war, and the damages the war had caused Ishmael overall. Firstly, this section talks about the damages the war had already caused him. "We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been tainted by the same experiences that still caused us great pain" (Beah, 202). This quotation is an overall explanation of the damage war had on Ishmael, before it returns in this section, the quotation tells us that war had done the following things to him: stole his happiness, and had tainted his life (darkened it) by making it so he couldn't forget what he had saw, and because of that, had caused him great pain. Secondly, this section talks about Ishmael being retouched by war. "Rebels and soldiers on the front lines started pouring into the city. "The entire nation crumbled into a state of lawlesness. I hated what was happening. I couldn't return to my previous life. I didn't think I could make it out alive this time" (Beah, 203). In this quote, Ishmael gives and what being retouched by war was like for him and others, it made them crumble into a state of "lawlessness". Lastly, in this section Ishmeal talks about the war overall. "I concluded to myself that if I were he hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament" (Beah, 218). This quote is the last sentence of the entire book, here is the quotation in context: this quotation is Ishmael's response to a story that was told in his hometown as a kid, of a hunter who goes out to kill a monkey, but when he is just about to, the monkey says to the hunter that if he kills him, his mother will die, and if he doesn't, his farther will die, this quotation reveals that the war did soo much damage to Ishmael, that he would would rather have his mom die from him killing the monkey, than have anyone else experiance the kind of pain that war caused him.
More damage is done to someone who is around a war, if they are actually in the war, being a participant of the killing action, being a slave to sorrow, guilt, and evil as dark as charcole. In this section of the book A Long Way Gone, written & based on Ishmael Beah, Ishmael confirms this statement to be true. He does this by talking about his the stages of his life when he was in the war: getting ready to kill, killing by force, and killing to avenge what couldn't be avenged. Firstly, this section talks about Ishmael getting trained for the army. This stage of Ishmael's life is significant because it brings incredible damage to Ishmael emotionly. "I quietly sat in the corner of the room clenching my teeth, as I didn't want to show my friendds the pain I felt from my headache. In my mind's eye I would see sparks children and women would come alive in my head. I cried quietly as my head beat like the clapper of a bell" (Beah, 103). This quotation is significant to the point, because it proves that this stage of Ishmael's life phycologically damaged him, more than he had ever had the war damage him before. Secondly, this section tells us about the stage of Ishmael's life where he was killing people by force. This stage of Ishmael's life is significant because it emotionally damaged him when he was being forced to kill. "He gave me the gun. I held it in my trembeling hand. He then added the magazine, and I shook even more" (Beah, 109). This quotation is significant to the point because, the shaking of ishmael's hands when he was given the gun (put in the position of having to kill someone), it made him so emotional, that he shook. Lastly, the book talks about the stage of Ishmaels life where he was killing to avenge, what couldn't be avenged. This stage of Ishmael's life is significant because what he was trying to avenge his family (who the rebels killed), and him killing to avenge them, didn't avenge them, it didn't change what they did, or heal the scars it left on him emotionally, but it killed him inside. more and more. "My ears rang with the gun sounds, my body ached and my index finger was sore" (Beah, 113). This quotation is significant to the point because, when this quote was used, it was after a day of killing rebels, so it proves the point, because in this scene we see the effects that killing to avenge, what Ishmael couldn't avenge, killed him inside, and drove him mad. once touched by it, your life will never be the same. The book I am using to attempt to answer this question today is a Long Way Gone, (a memoir of a boy soldier), written and based on the life experiances of Ishmeal Beah, during the time that that the Civil war in Sierra Leone was going on. it tries to answering this question through the of Ishmaels life's stages: Untouched by war, touched by war, and running from war. Firstly, Ishmael starts this book of by telling us that he once had been untouched by war. This stage of Ishmeals life is significant because he was untouched by war, he had no idea what it would be like to be in one. There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a faraway and different land (Beah, 5). This is significant to the point, because it reveals that his mind didn't have the capacity to imagine the gruesumeness people see, when they see a war happening. Secondly, this section tells us about when Ishmael was first touched by war. This stage of Ishmael's life is significant, because, it changed him on the inside. I stayed awake all night, anxiously waiting for daylight, so that I could fully return to my new life, to rediscover the happiness I had known as a child (Beah, 20). This quotation is significant to the point, because it proves that war changed him inside, it took away the happiness he once knew. Lastly, Ishmael talks about a stage of his life , where he was running away from the war. This stage of his life is signifant because he talks about how the war had perminantly damaged him emotionally and phycolocically. We all have a story... we all have a past… written on our arms ink dripping ink from our fingertips. A story of a past so cold, filled with lost hope and smoke… from the burning of the journal entries we wrote… but, never revealed, the pages unburned to a single living soul... you lived, but life didn’t feel like a present.. you always seemed to feel the same feeling, emotions felt controlled by a song stuck on repeat.. bringing the same sorrow filled feelings as it did yesterday. You went to sleep at midnight, 2 am, or 3, you cried yourself to sleep. Waking up and falling into the same routine nothing, seemed to change... I fell for him too hard and too fast, revealed to him the dusted tear stained pages of my past, let him inside of me to glimpse what made me weak, scream, and bleed. I stood on the edge of a cliff handing him a letter that spelled out 3 words …”I love you”!...I was a fool to name us forever… because before I could stop being a fool he cut us into 2 separate pieces by saying “I don’t love you anymore”!... The lights dimmed more and more, as the seconds of realization that it was real sunk in. The days felt light years, a never ending cycle of asking myself “why were you such a fool?”... We tried to be friends...but I was still holding on to the reminnes of the feelings that were only held onto only by me...he pushed me out of his life leaving to remember him by the sentence; “ I didn’t want to know you anymore, you were a mistake, and i’m sorry I ever said hello”... I was lying on the cold floor with a chill of loneliness running through me. He came back with a different name… Bully...Telling me what my name means; annoying, bitch, slut, and ugly. Darkness was all around me... I was broken when I called out to God saying “shine your light upon me I want to see!”, despite all the mistakes I had made and the sins of my past, with his everlasting Grace he answered me with healing...and he’ll answer you if you simply ask, and believe that he can do anything. Look out into the crowd...what do you see?... faces, what do you see, did I confuse you what do you see?, are these faces just faces with an unknown story, are names just names with no meaning?. Once upon a time we all walked on a wretched path, but now we live in the now.. But for one moment...look backwards onto the past… retrace your steps, re-read the book. Don’t treat your story like a tragedy. Write your story in journals, poems, and in songs, write your story all over your arms, take a spray paint can and turn them into graffiti all over these plain boring walls, and dare to look for a deeper meaning in everything you thought you knew but don’t know still. Because these stories are not just stories, they are footsteps that lead us to the present. We all have a story...we all have a past… written on our arms ink dripping from our fingertips. And though these stories don’t make us smile, dare to smile to know that they brought you to where you are now, and after you’ve written them down leave it there to lay, and dare to move forward and take the road less traveled today... So now I have one question to ask you, what’s your story? ~ Hailey Vella I chosse to do my project on the issue of bullying because I had a unique idea on how to attempt to stop it that was different from what everyone is doing in their attempt to remove it. This project is important to me because I had a friend who had experianced bullying both as a victum and a bully almost all their life. She had allot of emotional issues, she cut and was suicidal. I would always hear her say this when she was getting bullied; "I know you say that what my bullies say about me is not true, but they have made me believe it, and now i can never believe anything different. I know I deserve it because I used to be a bully, I just that that someone would care about me and help me despite what I have done in the past". She made me see that people always bully for a reason, something is wrong and they need help too and none of us deserve the good things that happen to us, because of what we have done in our pasts, but that's where grace comes in, and it can change our ways. The biggest we had in terms of part about helping the bully too was making people feel like they could open up without being bullied for once being a bully or being a bully who came to terms with the fact that they need to stop as well as bullies themselves. so we came up with the idea of getting people were once bullies to explain what they did and why they did it, by doing this it would show that it's not only the victum who is hurting but the bully too. For my group I set me and my partner I goals like; use real people's stories, express the point that both the bully and the victum are hurting, and express how the idea will change things and why it will, and express how big of an issue bullying is. I am happy to say we achieved each and every one of these goals. We achieved this because we intervied each and every person in this about their bullying story, included a few people who had really bad experiances with bullying, we included stats that showed that bullying statistics are only growing and we talked about why we think that what society is doing as an attempt to stop bullying isn't stopping bullying and than we talked about why our idea would stop bullying and hate and how we would accomplish this in a realistic sense. Durring this project I think that I actually started to see how me and my partners idea can really change things, not just in the community, but in the world, I actually believe now that this idea could change the world, could change everything, and that world peace could actually be achieved from inniciating this idea. Hate is not the answer it never will be and deep down we all know it's true, hate will never cure hate, love cures hate. Do you ever here people say to you " be care full about what you share about yourself on the internet"?, many teenager's and kid's parents have said it. The natural reaction when we hear that we don't really think about it, the reason for that is that allot of the time we think that what we share on the internet is private. It seems private, when you are talking to someone through emails, or Facebook messages, and other forms of "private" internet conversation, but it's the internet, how could it be private?, the internet can see it, anyone can see it because they are part of the internet. In my Future Forums class we were assigned to watch 5 You tube videos on Digital Citizenship as well as a You tube video called EXPOSED, about a girl whose in responsible use of freedom to use social media ruined her life. The main ideas all the Prezi videos I listed bellow Video # 1. The internet is what you make of it . Video # 2. Be careful of the amount of digital dossier ( amount of all the digital tracks you leave behind) Main ideas of Prezi videos and be careful of what tracks you leave behind. Video #3 (Digital Tattoo). What you do on the internet is your tattoo, never can be removed & perminant Video # 4. Don't over expose yourself on the internet Video # 5. Your whole life is online, whatever you post people can see, whatever you do on the internet people can see, so be careful what you say and do on the internet We need to realize that nothing on the internet is private, their is nothing you can do or say on the internet that can't be seen by another person. From the Prezi videos and the YouTube video exposed I got some points on what I took from the videos, video 1 will not be in this because it was a display of an upstanding digital citizen, he was an upstanding digital citizen because the internet user did the following: Used appropriate language (no swearing, insulting, threatening, and or verbally abusing anyone), Didn't post anything hurtful or anything to publicly embarrassed anyone, Didn't break any laws, and lastly was safe (didn't give away private info). here are the other notes i took on the other videos video notes
These videos really were a wake up call to me, I never realized how anyone could see ANYTHING you say and do on the internet, and it's something we all need to realize. We need to realize nothing on the internet is private, once you post that Facebook post, make that tweet on Twitter, send that picture, send that message , make that bank exchange, etc. it's out of your hands forever, you have no way of taking it back, even if you delete it, it's still out there, you deleting it didn't delete it, it may have deleated on your computer, but it didn't delete on the world wide web. This is a very scary, creepy, haunting truth, but once we come to terms with it we'll be way better off, and we will be more careful about what we do on the internet. it is important to know what it means to be an upstanding digital citizen and how to make a positive digital footprint because of for 2 reasons: if we don't understand how to be an upstanding digital citizen than we will be like Andy in video #2, or the girl in EXPOSED. The reason why we have to learn how to make a positive digital footprint is combined with the understanding of what it means to be an upstanding digital citizen: Knowledge of how to be an upstanding Canadian citizen --------------------------> knowledge of how to make a positive digital foot print. Well I gotta go but just remember: anyone can see anything you do on the internet so make smart choices. Valentines day, the day that reveals all girls's romantic fantasies. Hearts, chocolate, roses, cards, slow dances, candies, the colors red and pink, and tons of PDA, Valentines Day is either the happiest day of your life, or the loneliest. I even wrote a poem about it: "Hearts, Chocolates, hugs, and doves, PDA, roses, slow dances, love. Cuddles, teddy bears, where is Romeo of where oh where? romance running in the February air. And to the people who are single, sigh and shed one tear, oh great they say, Valentines day is here".People who are single sit alone watching as others get roses, chocolates, teddy bears, ballons, etc, jealousy and sadness running through them, I swear for those who are single, Valentines day is the loneliest time of year. Although i'm not single for the first time on Valentines day, my opinion of Valentines Day has not changed. Call me negative if you want but there is truth in what i'm saying. I think that it's great that there is a such thing as Valentines Day, i'm happy for the couples who get to spend it together, i'm even okay with the mushiness of it, but what i'm not okay with is the fact people get excluded, Valentines Day would be better if friends with boyfriends or girlfriends didn't ditch their friends because of this day, why can't the couple spend time with their friends together?, why do you have to leave your single friends alone, to feel lonely, why doesn't the couple consider the feelings of their friends? Yes a couple should have a day to themselves, but even just sending a text message or a Facebook message, or calling their single friends to make sure they are okay and cheer them up would make Valentines Day, everyone's day, instead of only the taken peoples day. suicide rate on Valentines Day Fridays, everyone loves Fridays!, knowing there is no school the next day, and that you can do whatever you want! you walk out of the school so excited, acting like you are invincible, and that anything is possible. Photo link Your watching a movie on a huge screen, total quiet, bag of popcorn in your hands perfectly made, and drinking a soda, not missing a single detail of the story line, sitting in a comfy chair, have the whole experiance with perfect picture and surround sound. How could anyone not enjoy going to the movies? it's awesome! Photo link "No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers, dirty looks"-Bruce Lansky. Summer vacation deserves to have the title of the #1. most awesome thing. No school, no homework, no more boring lessons in class, no more school stress, no more! When those lasts few seconds tick away on the clock, everyone is counting them down, filled with excitement and anticipation, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."ringggggg!" goes the bell and everyone jumps up and yells "yay!", you rush out of the class room, not caring about how your not supposed to be running in the halls, not caring what people say, not caring about anything, but rejoicing with " Hallalujah praise the Lord!". Summer vacation is where we become new people, not the stressed out kids/teenagers, but the young free souls that we really are. The days get longer, the food gets better, the drinks get colder, the parties get crazier, and all in all, life gets better. And we wish it could last forever, cause awesome gets even awesomer! Photo link |