Personal Writing
Personal Response to the book A Long Way Gone by Seung Soo Chae (Joseph)
This writing is an example of a non fiction reading, mostly referred as memoirs. In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, is a memoir based on his life in Sierra Leone as a child. This book had multiple downsides and a lot of things that benefitted the writing. Some downsides were that there were so much negative events during the story. Even though they solved the conflicts it was hard to read with so many negative events that happened to Ishmael. I think the involvement with the rebels, the RUF benefitted the story because it made me look up what RUF is. It helped me as a learner to improve on the skill to look up background information. Since I looked up background information the materials in the book were easy to understand.
The quality of the book was excellent because of how it provided expertise in the tone the author set for us. We could also know by the tone of the author, of how it felt as in Sierra Leone at that time. It helped me as a reader to step into Ishmael’s shoes and actually feel the things he felt in his journey to survival. A lesson I learned from this story was what drugs did to your daily life. The author described it as something you should never take, and he compared using drugs to his daily life. This lesson should teach readers, especially young adults to never take drugs.
Overall this book taught me great lessons on choices, especially on drugs, and war. This motivated me to help those in need, because of the author’s tone, and his voice. It persuaded me very much.
The quality of the book was excellent because of how it provided expertise in the tone the author set for us. We could also know by the tone of the author, of how it felt as in Sierra Leone at that time. It helped me as a reader to step into Ishmael’s shoes and actually feel the things he felt in his journey to survival. A lesson I learned from this story was what drugs did to your daily life. The author described it as something you should never take, and he compared using drugs to his daily life. This lesson should teach readers, especially young adults to never take drugs.
Overall this book taught me great lessons on choices, especially on drugs, and war. This motivated me to help those in need, because of the author’s tone, and his voice. It persuaded me very much.
Personal Response to the book A Long Way Gone by Paul Kim
I enjoyed reading the book. I personally enjoyed the book, since it shows the main character’s change in personality during the point of the stories. In how he is different in the beginning of the book, in the middle of the book, and at the end of the book.
In the beginning he is just a random person in a village enjoying his life, not affected by war and he just goes to school and sometimes visits the city. He believed that “At times I thought that some of the stories the passersby told were exaggerated.” (Beah 5). And being ignorant about the info, he goes to a talent show in a different town which leads to his family gets separated after his home village gets attacked. In this stage he seems
In the middle parts of the story, our main character who is also our author becomes a wanderer and a soldier. As he becomes a wanderer, he journeys through different towns and faces different challenges. In those moments in his life, from time to time, he just wants to give up on life because people are trying to kill him and his friends since they believe he is a part of the RUF. While the main character Ishmael Beah is going from one village to another searching for a safe place to stay. During those hardships, the main character learns how to cope with situations and not giving up and keep on moving. Moving on to how the main character changes as he becomes soldier, I was really surprised when he revealed that “We went out two more times that week and I had no problem shooting my gun”(Beah 120).When he first becomes a soldier, he fears killing other people and he actually doesn’t fight. But as his want of revenge settles inside him, he becomes addicted to drugs and he is no longer conscious about his mind.
By the end of the book, the main character is at a rehabilitation center. He starts to return to his previous life style of liking music and also having a family that supports him. Even though, the time that he lives in peace is very short, the main character shows positive changes in this personality. By this point, our main character seems caring and quiet which is different from his personalities from when he was a soldier. But, he could also be since traumatized by what he has done in his past as a soldier but he overcomes these adversaries and move along in life.
Finally to end my personal opinion of the book. I enjoyed reading this novel since it shows the growth of the main character. He shows different personalities which changes during the different phase the book and I really liked the growing up theme of the book since. In the beginning of the book, all he cared was about that day but, by the end of the book the main character solves his own problems and start solving his adversaries.
In the beginning he is just a random person in a village enjoying his life, not affected by war and he just goes to school and sometimes visits the city. He believed that “At times I thought that some of the stories the passersby told were exaggerated.” (Beah 5). And being ignorant about the info, he goes to a talent show in a different town which leads to his family gets separated after his home village gets attacked. In this stage he seems
In the middle parts of the story, our main character who is also our author becomes a wanderer and a soldier. As he becomes a wanderer, he journeys through different towns and faces different challenges. In those moments in his life, from time to time, he just wants to give up on life because people are trying to kill him and his friends since they believe he is a part of the RUF. While the main character Ishmael Beah is going from one village to another searching for a safe place to stay. During those hardships, the main character learns how to cope with situations and not giving up and keep on moving. Moving on to how the main character changes as he becomes soldier, I was really surprised when he revealed that “We went out two more times that week and I had no problem shooting my gun”(Beah 120).When he first becomes a soldier, he fears killing other people and he actually doesn’t fight. But as his want of revenge settles inside him, he becomes addicted to drugs and he is no longer conscious about his mind.
By the end of the book, the main character is at a rehabilitation center. He starts to return to his previous life style of liking music and also having a family that supports him. Even though, the time that he lives in peace is very short, the main character shows positive changes in this personality. By this point, our main character seems caring and quiet which is different from his personalities from when he was a soldier. But, he could also be since traumatized by what he has done in his past as a soldier but he overcomes these adversaries and move along in life.
Finally to end my personal opinion of the book. I enjoyed reading this novel since it shows the growth of the main character. He shows different personalities which changes during the different phase the book and I really liked the growing up theme of the book since. In the beginning of the book, all he cared was about that day but, by the end of the book the main character solves his own problems and start solving his adversaries.
Personal Writing
Reader’s Response
By: Simon Nam
“A Long Way Gone” written by the actual person in the story was an inspirational novel for me read. When I first saw the short introduction of this book, I decided to choose this book right away for our book club project, because I was really concerned with the ‘child soldier’ issue in Africa, when I knew about the Joseph Kony, who is the leader of the resistance movement in Congo with controlling the child soldiers. This story was similar to what Kony and his armies did in Africa. At first, I thought the story was about the author forcefully became a child soldier on the rebels’ side, but after reading several chapters, I realized that he joined an army of people fighting against rebels as a revenge of the loss of their families or friends. This realistic view which the author described when he was young, made me even getting more interested in reading this book.
Although, there was a small issue for me while I was reading this book. I was confused about the part where he was able describe his feelings from his past memory efficiently despite the fact that he consumed violent drugs which would bring him evanescence. In the story, after he consumed ample of violent drugs, I couldn’t rely on the description about him telling his emotions. But afterwards, I noticed that it was certainly possible for him to evoke his memories from the war, since his identity was strongly impacted by the war situations.
What is unique about this story is that the key point that the story was told from the author who was actually illustrated as the main character when he was young and have survived from the terrible war occurrence. I think the story has given me a deep message about the importance of making responsible decisions in the risky situation that is willing to give benefits to yourself and others. This book really affected me to change my view of my life. One specific moral lesson I have learned is that revenge could lead the society in a negative by people causing more destructions and more affecting others in a harmful way.
Reader’s Response
By: Simon Nam
“A Long Way Gone” written by the actual person in the story was an inspirational novel for me read. When I first saw the short introduction of this book, I decided to choose this book right away for our book club project, because I was really concerned with the ‘child soldier’ issue in Africa, when I knew about the Joseph Kony, who is the leader of the resistance movement in Congo with controlling the child soldiers. This story was similar to what Kony and his armies did in Africa. At first, I thought the story was about the author forcefully became a child soldier on the rebels’ side, but after reading several chapters, I realized that he joined an army of people fighting against rebels as a revenge of the loss of their families or friends. This realistic view which the author described when he was young, made me even getting more interested in reading this book.
Although, there was a small issue for me while I was reading this book. I was confused about the part where he was able describe his feelings from his past memory efficiently despite the fact that he consumed violent drugs which would bring him evanescence. In the story, after he consumed ample of violent drugs, I couldn’t rely on the description about him telling his emotions. But afterwards, I noticed that it was certainly possible for him to evoke his memories from the war, since his identity was strongly impacted by the war situations.
What is unique about this story is that the key point that the story was told from the author who was actually illustrated as the main character when he was young and have survived from the terrible war occurrence. I think the story has given me a deep message about the importance of making responsible decisions in the risky situation that is willing to give benefits to yourself and others. This book really affected me to change my view of my life. One specific moral lesson I have learned is that revenge could lead the society in a negative by people causing more destructions and more affecting others in a harmful way.