Journal 6 Hiten

     

       The charter that I think is very important Is Esther because she has helped Ishmael become a little kid again. Esther never gave up on Ishmael even when he gave up on himself. She kept helping him even when he was rude to her. She was there for him when he had no one else “I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for. It is just me. No one will be able to tell my stories about my childhood. I sniffled a bit. Esther put her arms around me and pulled me closer to her. She shook me to get my full attention before she started “think of me as your family, your sister”” (Beah 167).

       I feel like Ishmael’s rehabilitation worked because he behaves like a kid again. He is starting to trust people and is starting to let go of the past and learning to move on from the war. Even though he still had a nightmares and migraines he has come a long way for being a 13-year-old boy who has killed many people and seen so much death. I also don’t think that the nightmares are going to go away all the way because the war has become a part of his life and the fact that he has lost so much because of it.

       One of the Beah’s best writing techniques is the way he describes the scene and he makes the readers feel as if they are there in person. The passage that I thought had a strong scene detail was when Beah describes “the corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man’s head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out. His eyes rolled up and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance, as if caught by surprise” (Beah 125).

       The passage that I chose was when Beah is talking to his uncle “Like I said, we cannot go back. But we can start from here. I am your family and that is enough for us to begin liking each other, he replied, rubbing my head and laughing a little” (Beah 172). This is the time when he finally feels like he still has family that is willing to love him and take him in even though they don’t know each other.