Thursday, October 23, 2014

Exploration 5: Benjy Fournier

Esther has had the biggest impact on me.  The fact that she put so much time and energy into helping Ismael is very inspiring to me.  "Why did you get me this Walkman if we are not friends?"  This is a physical example of how Esther tries to help Ismael.  There are many other emotional examples that Esther does to help.  I find in amazing how she feels so passionately about her job.  Her caring so much about helping Ismael is inspiring to me and gives me goosebumps thinking about.

I feel that Ismael is very lucky to be getting this rehabilitation.  He is very strong minded and I feel confident in putting forth the effort to rehabilitate him, which the nurse must have felt too considering the amount of effort she put in to help him.  The signs of improvement he has already shown are substantial and lead me to believe that he is fully capable of being completely fixed.  So, once he has finished his treatment, I would feel comfortable with him in my neighborhood.  He is a good kid deep down, and once he digs deep and finds that good kid, he will in no way be a threat to society.

A repeated convention Beah uses in the entire book is foreshadowing.  A specific example of this is the passage "But everything was about to change in the last weeks of January 1996.  I like the way he uses a lot of foreshadowing because it leads into dramatic events well, and adds a nice flavor to the writing.

" Why had the lieutenant decided to give us up to these civilians?  We thought that we were part of the war until the end.  The squad had been our family."  This quote and the following paragraphs were greatly impacting to me because it shows how truly messed up Ismael was from the war.  He was so brainwashed to kill that he did not want to leave the violence for safety.  It really helps the reader to understand just how much the war effected the thinking of the young boys.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with your number two from start to finish. Ishmael is more than lucky to be given this opportunity and chance to rehabilitate. I also think that it will take time for him to get back to the way he was but truly believe that this saved his life. Nice job!

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  2. I agree with you that Ishmel is very lucky to be able to get the chance to get rehabilitation. If he puts his mind to the rehab I believe that he will get better and feel comfortable with him living in my neighborhood. Some soliders are not getting the chance to get rehabilitation so Ishmel is a very lucky guy.

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  3. I agree with your first paragraph and how Saidu was important, Ishmael seemed interested in Saidu and really did care for him. It was someone Ishmael had grown to care about and was very sad when he died.

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  4. I really enjoyed reading your post. I agreed with a lot that you had to say. I too love all the foreshadowing Beah uses throughout his novel, it gives off a lot of "ah hah" moments. I also found it very scary how much the war did impact Ishmael's way of thinking. Great post.

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