Journal three- Vilma lopez

    

      Beginning my active reading was a struggle. It was something new, and a new habit to start doing. writing in the book, was a strange thing for me. I never wrote anything in the book. But now I am noticing that it does help. I usually forgot what I read after reading a chapter. also what the chapter was about. Now putting a title on the book, it bring me back to what it was about. I keep struggling with highlighting. Sometimes I can not find the right title for the chapter.

      I can not really say there is a weakness for either book. "The house on Mango Street' has several strength. When describing a person, she is very detailed. Not telling it by an adult point of view but a child. This attracts the readers attention and helpful to imagine the character.  Cisneros vocabulary is everywhere. she brakes some grammar rules but it does not really matter. Because, she does it so well. In the book "A long way gone" is more dramatic and  intense. More action bringing the attention, as if we are in Ishmael's shoes. His life while  growing up can not be compared to what we would say a "normal" child growing up. Ishmael saw people killed, shots going all over the place. going days without eating and not being able to having any contact with his parents. Not so much metaphors used as Cisneros does. He just puts it out there, what he feels and sees happening. I do not have a preference between both of them. I like both. 

        

            The theme I found in Beah was doubt. In chapter 6, we can see how communication was lost. Nobody trusted no one, not even those who were really close. This is important to notice  because people felt unsecured. They feared their surrounding. No one specifically who were the spies so, as Ishmael was hiding in the bushed, and were spotted. They were tormented, and they  were lucky someone in the group remember them from their performance. If that person had not remembered them, the outcome would have turned out differently. And more because the children were used as a weapon in the war. Beah writes "People were terrified of boys our age. Some had heard rumors about young boys being forced by rebels to kill their families and burn their village".(Page37) Here we can notice that for them roaming around the village, was a dangerous things. More knowing that at their age they were not seen as innocent kids.