Journal #1 - Liam

         This book is about survival. Not survival against the elements, but survival against other humans. That's the biggest thing that strikes me. After the first 8 or 9 chapters, the clear depictions of what his life was like is so clear, that you can almost feel it. Ishmael talks about how he ran for days without stopping, and how all of the skin on the bottom of his feet would peel off, and how he had nothing to eat but bitter orange-like fruits that he carried with him.
       
        When I first began to read the book, I was surprised at how ruthless and cruel the rebels in the story were. It hit home. This book has a very good way of capturing its reader. When I read it, I don't exactly feel like I'm in it, like other books do. No, because who could feel that way if you hadn't already experienced that sort of pain. But although I don't feel like I'm in it, I feel like I'm watching it. In the first 8 chapters, you begin to see how Ishmael quickly changes from childhood to manhood, in a matter of months.
       
        At first, he is terrified by what's happening, he cannot wrap his mind around it. He is in denial, and he has no idea what to do. With time however, he becomes desensitized to all of it. Fear remains, but he is used to the pain, and the death around him. He begins his journey, accompanied by 4 other boys his age, but they are all separated. For months now, he's been alone, and he is beginning to have mental conflicts with himself.
     
       Luckily for him, he meets up with more boys that he remembered from his home village, and they begin to travel together. They are captured, their shoes are taken, and they escape. They run for what seems like forever, on the hot dirt, while their feet peel nearly to the bone. These chapters only begin the pain that I unfortunately predict Ishmael will yet go through.

-Liam