Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Journal #4 by Regan

Regan Endsey


Part One:
The reading overall so far is going really well, Keeping with both books is sometimes difficult but its getting easier because I'm starting to really like both books. I think  The House on Mango Street is a great, interesting and a different book. The strengths in this book is that Cisneros is very detailed and uses a lot of literary techniques and devices. The weaknesses in this book is that for me the overall picture is very confusing because each chapter is very short and it sometimes get confusing on where this is all going in the end. I think A Long Way Gone is starting to get really good and I'm getting into it more than I was in the beginning. The strengths in this book are that its very very descriptive and while I read this is can see the picture in my head of whats going on and that makes it more interesting. The weaknesses in this book is that for me it took a couple chapters for me to start to get into it and want to read it, so hopefully it just keeps getting better from here. The book that is going better for me right now is The House On Mango Street just because I like how different the writing is, it's not just a typical book, I also love all the metaphors the Cisneros uses, for me its just more interesting and more fun to read right now. My reading habits are honestly going better than I thought, at first like I said keeping up with both books was hard but highlighting important details and the different literary devices is very helpful, also writing a nutshell at the end of each chapter is the most helpful, its something I can look back on and then remember what I read.

Part Two: Chapter 7 - Isolation 
I titled chapter 7 Isolation because Beah gets isolated from his brother Junior and almost everyone he knew after the attack. A nutshell of chapter 7 is, Beah gets split up from Junior and everyone he knows, the village gets burned and attack by the rebels and everyone leaves and Beah decided to continue going on alone and has to learn to survive alone by walking through different forests and villages until he gets to Sierra Leone. The vocabulary word I chose because I was not familiar with the word was, "Mende" which is groups of people inhabiting Sierra Leone and is the language they speak, and this is important to know while reading so you don't get confused. Beah is going through a lot of challenges in this chapter, being alone, being scared and not being trusted. A specific challenge and theme that Beah is going through in this chapter is like I made the title, isolation, going through this as you can image can not be easy and thinking about Junior, the rest of his family and his friends wondering if they're okay is really hard on Beah, "I pressed my fingers on my eyelids to hold back my tears and wished that I could have my family together again."(45) Another challenge and theme I saw was trust, its is a big challenge no one can trust each other anymore and that is challenging for Beah, "it was clear from the tone of his voice he didn't trust me. I looked at the curious and skeptical faces of the children and the women. I was glad to see their faces and at the same time disappointment that the war has destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people." (48) Trust affects the relationship of people because if you don't have trust you really can't even have a relationship.

3 comments:

  1. i really like the title " isolation " for this chapter because beah truly does feel isolated from his brother and friends and i would feel the same way he does.

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  3. I really like your title for this chapter it is very good. i do agree that reading two books can be difficult because you kinda lose track.

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