A Long Way Gone-- Chapters 8-9

This section began with Ishmael talking about how he feels like he is constantly being chased. He also began to see evil in everything, including the air. I think it is completely awful for children as young as he is, to already know and be familiar with evil. It is bad for anyone to know evil, but especially bad for young children. Unfortunately though, it was these boys' lives, and they were surrounded by it during this time. But passing through villages that had already been beaten made him just move faster, and he says they were the driving force of his escape. After walking for several days, Ishmael finds himself lost in the forest. Because he is lost he spends a lot of time thinking, which is dangerous and hard for him to do at this time in his life. He couldn't remember how he got there or how to get out. So he was stuck: alone, thinking, and lost. He felt tormented by the images an memories his mind conjured up for him almost for punishment. He tried to chase them away by filling his time in other things, but i didn't help. He was brought back to the sad memories every time he tried to drift. Ishmael also says he was "afraid of thinking." This completely broke my heart. Your mind and thoughts are supposed to be your safe haven. But instead, for people going through this war and for people who had seen what Ishmael had seen, their minds were just another danger zone. It is sad to think that you can't even escape from the harsh reality because it is being replayed in your mind. I also found Ishmael's memories of his grandfather and his medical remedies to be sad. Ishmael talks about how his grandfather had medicines for anything but he didn't have one for the problem these people were facing every day, when they needed a solution or an aid of some sort to end the problem. In this section, Ishmael's loneliness begins to eat at him. He says the worst thing about being in the forest was the loneliness. But before Ishmael said it was bad that he was traveling in large numbers and now that he is alone he thinks it is also bad. It kind of shows that there is no easy or happy way in the situation. Another thing that kind of broke my heart in this section was when he remembers what his father used to say to him: "If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die." This was very hopeful to me but it kind of made me a little confused because it seems like nothing good is happening to/for Ishmael, so he should be dead but he's not. But it kind of also got me worried because according to this and the lack of goodness in Ishmael's life he will soon die, which we know he doesn't, but in this book you never know. Finally, Ishmael is reacquainted with a group of boys. This time, he accepted their companionship even though he knew it was going to be a problem to their safety because he hated being alone. Another sad aspect of this section was the old man in the abandoned village. I cannot believe how everyone could juse leave him to die just because he needed help, but I guess this is just the self preservation aspect coming back into the story. The old man says that it is better not to know his name so they can save that place in their memory. And later on in the reading, this happens again with the friendly man who shelters them in the next village after they practically burn their feet off. They get their shoes stolen from them when they are persecuted in another village for being part of the bad group. So they are forced to walk to long walk to the next safe village, barefoot on the hot ground. When they arrive in the village where they finally receive help, they find a hut and try to rest their legs. Soon, a nice young man comes and brings them food and water and cares for them. This gave me hope that even in this wreck of hatred and corruption, there could still be some decent people in the world of evil. He kind of gave me faith to continue reading and promised that not every person in this book were going to be disloyal or not trusting. And then, once again, rap saves their lives when they are being persecuted for being the evil devils once again, a cassette falls out of Ishmael's pocket and it intrigues the villagers and soon they are on their way again. God love that rap music.