Brown Brown

Brown-brown is a form of powdered cocaine mixed with smokeless gunpowder. Beah describes it was largely used by the children in the war.

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Ishmael Beah

“I know the nature of what it is to be forgotten, what it is to lose your humanity, and more importantly, what it is to recover from it and to have another life.” – Ishmael Beah

Review Response - José

I agree with the review written by William Boyd from the New York Times. Because I think everything the boy did it was not his fault. He became a “product” of the environment he was living. He had to do drugs and kill other persons without mercy otherwise he would be killed. It was a survival instinct, we cannot blame the boy.

After reading the review, my perception of the story remains the same. I keep feeling pity for the boy because of everything he lost: family, friends, village. I try to put myself in the boy’s shoes in order to understand all the sufferings he had been through. I don’t think I would be able to keep my hope and fight for my life as the boy did after everything he faced.

Another point I agree with William, is the cruelty Ishamael gives us with such richness of details. He tells us the way they used to kill prisoners and even detail the day he cut a man’s throat and the blood that squirted. We can figure the images on our minds. It must have been very hard for a young boy such as Ishmael to witness all those ongoings. I can’t even imagine the blame he might feels nowadays. Even though he was treated and passed with success through rehabilitation, he probably thinks sometimes about what he did. It must have left scars on him.

The summary in the review is very good. William highlighted the main events of the book and transmitted them wisely.

Journal #4 - Jose

The last section of the book is the best one. Finally, good things started to happen with him. At first, he got a family. His new family is very nice and they treat him very well. Then, he got the chance to go to New York City on a UN conference about children facing war all over the world. He attended to the conference in New York and afterwards, he came back to Sierra Leone. I can’t understand why he didn’t stay there. If I was him, I would never go back to Sierra Leone.

He came back and started living a normal life. He was even attending school. His life seemed to be very happy. Suddenly, the rebels and the army got together to make a new government. Once again the boy would have to face the war and run for his life. I would be very scared and disappointed if I was him. After all he had been through, the war reached him again. At this point of the book, it was like watching a flash-back of the previous chapters. The soldiers and rebels were on the streets, shooting, raping and stealing everyone.

When the boy decided to run away from the city to Guinea, the neighboring country, I was very apprehensive. Because he would face a lot of difficulties trying to leave the city. Every checkpoint he reached, soldiers would extort him and the other passengers that were with him. After a long journey, the boy reached Conakry, Guinea’s capital. I felt very bad for him not having a place to sleep but then he went to the Sierra Leone’s embassy with other refugees looking for shelter. The book ends.

I didn’t understand the final of the book. How did he go to New York again? How he got money? What about his “new” family?

The book ends but many questions stay unanswered. The final is very “weak”, but, overall, it is a very good book.

Journal #3 - Jose

In the beginning of this section, the book gets happier. The boy is taken out of the war and brought to a rehabilitation centre called the Benin Home. The Benin Home is part of a project from UNICEF (United Nations Children Fund) who help children all over the world who are involved in war. At first, he didn’t want to go there, we wanted to keep fighting. As he said, he was ready to die for his country. Because of this feeling, he and the other boys, were protesting against the rehabilitation.


I think it is a wonderful thing, what they did for those children. I wouldn’t have enough courage to work on a hostile environment surrounded by dangerous kids as the volunteers did. Also, when the boys did something wrong, the workers wouldn’t get mad at all and they would say: "It’s not your fault". I would have probably given up them.


When Leslie found the boy’s uncle, I guess it was the best part of the book so far. It was very nice to see something good happening with Ishmael after all the bad luck he had. After many years he was reunited with a family member. The only bad part it that his friends hadn't found any relatives.

In my opinion, the most important character of this sections was the nurse, Esther. At the beginning, the boy was very rude with her, although, she was always very nice to the boy. After many attempts, she awaked the boy’s sense of humanity and they became very close to each other. Maybe, if she have given up, the boy wouldn’t have been reinstructed to live in society and never had a family again.

Journal #2 - Jose

 

The second part of the book is a roller coaster of emotions. We go from sad to happy in a couple of minutes and then we get sad again. In the very beginning of this section, the boys saw the ocean for the first time. That really amused me because I’ve been living by the Atlantic ocean since I was born. They seemed so happy and curious at the same time and I felt that quite strange as I never thought that some people might have never seen the ocean.

The methods the soldiers used to focus the boys in the war were at most, harsh. They used to say: “The rebels had cut off the heads of some people’s family members and made them watch, burned entire villages along with their inhabitants, forced sons to have intercourse with their mothers, hacked newly born babies in half because they cried too much, cut open pregnant woman's stomach, took their babies out and killed them...” That quotation made me feel really bad because everything they said is true. It really happened. This serves to show the cruelty that the human being can reach.

When the soldiers found them, they were safe, but not for too long. They were forced to engage the war against the rebels to revenge their families and friends deaths. We were able to see Beah's, conflict against himself when he was in the middle of the gun fires. He should have fired his weapon to live but he couldn’t. Until he made the first shot. When he killed the first person, his problem went away and he let his “evil side” win. Although it is wrong, we can’t blame him. He was fighting for his own life. Who wouldn’t?

I am really surprised with the ways the book is taking. My predictions on what will happen next are usually wrong. It is really interesting how the writer alternates with high tension moments and low tension moments. I’m anxious for the next chapters.

Questions on Conflicts - Jose

1. How would you feel in the middle of a civil war such as the one in Sierra Leone?

Personally, I would be really scared and anxious.

2. The boy had to survive on his own. Would you make it?

Probably not. I am not as determined as him, but in situations like this, I would get stronger and go beyond my limits.

3. The boy was afraid to shoot but as soon as he pushed the trigger, he lost his "fear". Why?

He was afraid because he had never done that before but when he did, he realized that it was not that hard. I guess he felt the same “power” that the rebels felt while attacking villages.

4. Do you think the rebels are the "bad guys"?

Yes. They used to say that they were fighting for a “bigger cause” but people who rape kids, kidnap them, drug them, force them to go to war and to kill their own family cannot be considered good people.

5. Although the boy is chased why does he keep his hope?

He was running away for his life hoping to see his family again. When they died, the boy started to fight to revenge them.

6. Ishmael saw some friends dying at his side. Could you tolerate that?

No, I would probably pass out or commit suicide.

7. Could the boy end the war?

No, nobody could do it alone.

8. Do you think his family was able to escape the attack?

Probably not because Ishmael over heard the rebels saying that nobody escaped the attack in the village his family stayed at.

9. In your opinion, will the boy's friends run away with him? Or is he going to leave alone?

I predict that his current friends are going to die. I think he will find new friends and will run away with them.

10. What do you think the "white pills" are? Without it would the boys be able to kill?

I think the white pills are probably crack. No, they would not be mentally able to kill all those innocent people without it.

Journal #1 - Jose

After reading the first quarter of the book, the main feelings that take upon me are sadness and pity. Ishmael Beah tells us the story of the civil war which happened in Sierra Leone during the 90’s with all the atrocities and details. “The breeze brings the faint cries of those whose last breaths are leaving their mangled bodies. I walk past them. Their arms and legs are missing; their intestines spill out through the bullet holes in their stomachs; brain matter comes out of their noses and ears. The flies are so excited and intoxicated that they fall on the pools of blood and die.”(Pg. 18). After reading this description, I got queasy. The richness of detail which Ishmael tells the story makes us recreate image in our heads. It’s almost if those memories were yet fresh in his mind.

When he was with his brother and friends, they were feared by many. That might have made them feel the same “power” the rebels felt. At the very first time they were captured by, with his words, “huge men” I found my self very apprehensive because I didn’t know what would happen with them. I could almost feel the same pain he described when they tied them so strongly their elbows were touching each other.

In my opinion, the climax of this section of the book is the part the guys are captured by the rebels. At that point, anything could happen. I must admit that I thought they would die there or, at least, suffer some kind of torture. The escape was really surprising for me. When he split up with his friends and had to survive by his own for two months in the jungle, I felt sorry for him. To conclude, I guess been in a large group again will bring him problems.