Plot
By Asier Salazar
This book is about a 12 years old boy called Ishmael that lives in Sierra Leona. Ishmael,
his older brother and some friends have to run after his village is destroyed by the
rebels during the civil war. After they wander village by village searching for food and
shelter and hiding from the rebels, Ishmael becomes a soldier for the regular army
capable of killing and doing terrible things that he would never have thought about.
The boy soldiers become addicted to cocaine and marijuana, which help them to
not feel emotions, sorrow... Ishmael continues to fight for the army, until UNICEF
takes the boy soldiers to a rehab centre. There he struggles to forgive himself. With
the help, love and compassion of Esther, a nurse at the rehab center, he manages to
forgive himself and starts healing. While living with his uncle Tommy in the
outskirts of Freetown, he is selected to travel to New York and to speak to the United
Nations about his story. In New York he meets Laura Simms, who prepares him to tell
his story and explains him the importance of sharing his experience. After Ishmael
returns to Freetown, the RUF attacks the city killing his uncle. Beah becomes a refugee
and escapes to Guinea, where he contacts Laura. Eventually she adopts him and he
relocates to New York where he attends college.
Questions
1) When does the climax of the story occur?
2) Why does the author use first person point of view?
3) Why is so important the nurse for the outcome of the story?
4)Which would have been the outcome of the story if Ishmael wouldn't have been selected to travel to New York?
5) How does the antagonist influence the outcome of the story?
6) What would you have done if you were Ishmael, when he founds that his uncle is dead?
7) Why the rebels give the boy soldiers cocaine and marijuana?
8)Why Ishmael has a bad relationship with his father?
9) Why does the rebels mark the messengers with the letters "RUF"?
10) What have you learned from this story?
4) I believe that he would still be in Sierra Leone, and possibly dead.
ReplyDelete2) It suits the genre, as this is a memoir. It also allows him to show a very personal side to this civil war, getting the reader right into his thoughts and decisions.
Delete7) The drugs put the boys into a state of mind where they can do the terrible things that the government is asking them to do. It also increased their pain tolerance, allowing to fight even after being shot. The same thing occurred in Falluja in 2003, were as American forces entered the city the insurgents used lots of cocaine and heroin in order to increase their pain tolerance and allow them to fight even after being shot multiple times.
Delete1) The climax occurs when Ishmael realizes he will never escape war and find peace until he leaves Sierra Leone. He finds a way to get to Guinea and then to New York to become a new person.
ReplyDelete3) Because he helps Ishmael to forgive himself and helps him to forget the horrible experiences he had when he was with the rebels.
6) I would probably be very upset and freak out. I would have done what Ishmael did and escape to a near by country or city.
10) You can learn from this story that if given the right environment and circumstances, you can do anything. Even things you would have never imagined you were capable of doing.