Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Fish Bowl #2, A Long Way Gone, Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6

Welcome to your 2nd A Long Way Gone fish bowl!

A few reminders if you're looking for an A for the day:

(A) Bring at least one quotation and/or page reference into at least one of your responses.
(B) Explain your thinking thoughtfully and thoroughly (try to avoid the one-sentence response).
(C) Keep it professional, including the usage of proper grammar and spelling.
(D) Comment frequently from the beginning of the conversation to the end.


Remember also that you're welcome to get into a hot seat in the inner circle for a little while and earn some of your daily participation points there.

88 comments:

  1. Do you think that he will ever see his family again? If so where?

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    1. He'll definitely see his family again maybe not all of it but I don't think his entire family is killed in the war. Who do you think he is most likely to see?

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    2. I don't think that he will because they were probably killed when the rebels attacked the villages

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    3. The chances of him seeing his family again are slim, but that doesn't mean he won't or that they are not alive. There has been plenty of survivors so far, and his family could be among them. "They didn't want the people to abandon the town, because the needed to use civilians as a shield against the military." (Beah 24). The rebels need to use some of the people, so they will not kill every one of them.

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  2. On page 22 the refuges have sill not shown up, do you think a big attack is coming and that's why it is taking them a longer time to come?

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    1. Yes I think that since they haven't showed up yet it is foreshadowing a big attack coming

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    2. If they haven't shown up yet, it could either mean they are waiting for a surprise attack or are being temporarily held up, but after the messages they sent they would not give up on attacking that village.

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  3. "This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy."Chapter 4, p. 37. what is this quote talking about

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    1. It is talking about how since it was a civil war it was a war among the people so you didn't know who was your enemy and who was your friend because they both looked the same.

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    2. I agree with Dalton because they didn't know who to trust anymore because everyone did look the same its like fighting a war in a mirror.

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    3. It was describing the devastation that goes along with war. It gets hard to rely on anybody, even your neighbors and good friends.

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  4. On page 35 Ishmael says "We had somehow ended up running the same direction" Do you believe in fate and will this sort of fate be a common occurrence throughout the book?

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    1. They ran in the direction of where they were staying so it may have just been that their first through was to run back to the village they were hiding at.

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    2. I don't believe in fate because really you could get yourself out of any situation on way or another. I don't doubt though that there will be future occurrences of this kind of fate throughout the book.

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  5. On page 48, the book reads, "This is the last time I'll see my older brother again." I think this a turning point emotionally for him. Junior was not only his brother but also a role model to him.

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    1. I agree, it is a very emotional part for him, loosing a family member is hard to go through.

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  6. "That night we were temporarily happy that we had some money, and were hoping to buy some cooked rice with cassava or potato leaves for dinner." On page 29. how does this represent how their lives are now?

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  7. On page 24 Why do you think the soldiers that fight against the refuges just left before the refuges even came? Do you think they left because, every man for themselves?

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  8. What is the significance of this quote? "Some heard rumors about young boys being forced by rebels to kill their families and burn their villages."

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    1. I think this quote is significant because it relates to the group of kids. They might have to do the same if worst comes to worst.

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    2. That the rebels are cruel and don't care about your emotions. They want you to have nothing and nothing to live for, so if you ever escape or something they have nothing to go back to. The is nothing else to live for, so that makes them better soldiers.

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  9. On pg. 21 it says "'One love' to each other, an expression popularized by the love an influence on reggae music" How do you think this one love aspect will play out in the rest of the book?

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    1. Yes I think that you will see this throughout the book when he is going through hard times or when he is being separated from his friends.

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  10. How did music save Ishmael?

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    1. When the soldiers captured him they found a rap tape in his pocket. At first this made him more suspicious because they thought he was a rebel. A boy recognized them and saved their lives.

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  11. “Often, my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles. Everything felt awkwardly brutal. Even the air seemed to want to attack me and break my neck.” p 40
    This quote shows the speaker definitely has deep feelings about the environment.

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  12. On page 43 Ishmael says "The only times that I enjoyed were the afternoon breaks, when we went swimming in the river." Do you think these times make him happy, because it brings good memories to him when his friends would walk 16 miles and take swimming breaks. Makes him take his mind off the reality of things?

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    1. Well yeah it makes him happy because he get's to spend quality time with his friends. But I believe it also makes him happy because the conditions he was living in were truly brutal and this was a good break.

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  13. On page 37, the book reads, ""This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy." I think this quote is very powerful. This sounds like it would be horrible to have to live this way.

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  14. When the rebels attacked, why don't the villagers help each other to escape? Instead of leaving their friends and families to die, why don't they help each other?

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    1. I think that they all are a little selfish and think to themselves, Every man for them selves, and they think they are just going to eventually meet up later.

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  15. On page 25 Do you think personal instincts kicked in when they were being chased and shot at by RPGs and Ak47s, their Adrenalin was pumping which made them run for 1 hour?

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  16. One of my questions was why did Ishmael become a boy soldier?

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    1. I think he was forced to.

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    2. I think it was either become a boy soldier or die trying to escape.

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  17. p. 49.
    Ishmael has been separated from his friends following the rebel attack on the town of Kamator. He has been walking for days from village to village, haunted by the terrible scenes of war he has witnessed. I, as a reader wonder how he pushes on each day, from witnessing such horrors.

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  18. On page 33, The rebels don't kill the old man, but they shot very close to his head, why would they not kill him if he was getting weak, and he tried to escape before?

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  19. On page 29 Why isn't there some kind of leader to help them in the village?

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  20. Without the jungle for cover do you think Ismael would have been captured by now? This really shows how big of a role that the environment has and why it is so cherished.

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    1. Yeah i think they would of been captured because there is really no other cover they could of took than the forest. Geography plays a big part in this book.

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  21. On pg 31 it says "I didn't know the name of the villages we were in, and I didn't bother to ask." Why do you think he didn't want to ask where he was?

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    1. I think its because he doesn't want to know how far from home he is. He must be scared to travel by himself.

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  22. How did Ishmael become separated from the rest of his family when he was 12 years old?

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  23. On page 40, the book reads, "“Often, my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles. Everything felt awkwardly brutal. Even the air seemed to want to attack me and break my neck.” This kind of a lifestyle sound just horrible. Also keeping in mind, he is just a kid.

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  24. What do the sun and the moon represent in these chapters?

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  25. "I was scared, scared of becoming a soldier" Ishmael is saying this before he was to be marked by the rebels. He thinks this because becoming a rebel means that you are marked for life. And if you are marked, you can never escape the enslavement of a rebel.

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    1. Well as a rebel you don't really have a chance of coming back and leaving the life as a rebel. You either die or the people around you all die and at that point you're broke into as a rebel. They treat you as one and they are supplying you with drugs and at that point you need the drugs to survive, so you end up looking for another rebel camp for the drugs and to go back to you're life.

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  26. Responding to Julio I think yes that is why he distances himself from his friends because he thinks that if he gets to emotionally attached then if they die which there is a good possibility that they will then it will be a lot more tragic and traumatizing

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  27. “Sometimes I watched the little monkeys practice jumping from tree to tree. . . . The sounds of branches snapping off trees became my music. There were certain days when the sounds of the branches breaking made a consistent rhythm that I would enjoy very much, and the sonority of it would echo for a while and would gradually fade into the depths of the forest.” I think this quote shows how nature acts as a motif and how it draws away from the plot to give the reader a feel for the enviornment.

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  28. During the attack on the village Kamator was the last time he saw his brother, How will this effect him in the rest of the book and in his life.

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  29. On page 47 when Ishmael swam in the river with the random people, what do you think was going through his mind when he realized that the people in the river didn't trust him?

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  30. On pg. 41 it says "One of my uncles used to joke that he would like to die at this time of year " What significance do you think this quote has?

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    1. I think that it signifies how this time of the year is always really bad and violent and it might actually just be better to die rather then have to live through the violence and bloodshed

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  31. Page 40, “Often, my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles."
    The rebels have instilled fear into all of the people of Sierra Leone. Is this their objecive?

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    1. Yes i think they wanted to show how much power they had.

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  32. p. 54
    Ishmael, still a refugee, has been wandering through the forest for over a month, during which time he has seen no one. His only companions are monkeys, snakes, wild pigs, and deer. Again, nature acts as a motif and it shows the true nature of Africa.

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  33. Because food is such a luxury in this book, will there be severe acts of violence committed to get food and will this become a driving factor in this book?

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    1. I assume that rebels raid farms just for the food. If there low on supplies that there really is no stopping them from doing what they need to do.

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  34. Ishmael talks about the river a lot. What significance do you think the river has?

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  35. I wonder if Ishmael has accepted the fact that he could die at any moment, and therefore accepting death. If so, I wonder if this is what pushes him to survive? He tells of a saying that his father had told him when he was younger, and that if you die your objective is over, but if you are still living, there is an objective waiting for you to complete.

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  36. How do you think Ismael's family responded to the whole situation. Do you think they escaped the attack?

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    1. I think that they probably think that their son is dead

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  37. When they came back to the village on pg. 27 , how do you think the reacted to seeing all the bodies and horrific images?

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  38. Where do you think that will be taken at the end of chapter 6?

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  39. “One morning, . . . we started hearing something like the roar of big engines, the rolling of metal drums on a tar road, a thunder exploding, roll after roll.”
    p 50 This quote shows the true fear of these people.

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  40. In the reading it said that people were scared of groups of teenagers, do you think this will play out in their favor or not?

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    1. For now i think it will play in their favor but when it comes to the rebels it wont matter.

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  41. How did nature play a role in these chapters?

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    1. Nature helped Ishmael and his friends escape. When the rebels were attacked while they were by the river, it allowed all of them to run and take cover by trees and bushes. It allowed them to live longer.

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  42. I think that the scars that have happened upon Ishmael's happiness have resulted in a big tear in his life. When he is surviving with his friends and walking village to village, he is always thinking about where his life is going. It makes me wonder about how different life is here than it is there and how we have unlimited opportunities ahead of us and for Ishmael, it was all taken away in an instant

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  43. "The first two weeks were extremely painful. I suffered from back pains and muscle cramps." How does this show that they are already being treated bad?

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    1. I think this shows how much harder their lives are going to become

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  44. “The villages that we captured and turned into bases as we went along and the forests that we slept in became my home. My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed.” p 67
    This shows how survival of the fittest is simply the true way of life.

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  45. Going back to Julio questions what is ismal saying?

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  46. I agree with the topic of conversation now. I think the tone of nature also reflects the tone of the book.

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  47. Nature helps Ishmael in this part of the book but do you think that nature will punish him later in the book?

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  48. On page 43 it says "It was during that attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior, my older brother." Do you think they will find each other again? If Ishmael is a rebel, will he be tested later to kill one of his friends?

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  49. "These children now patrolled in special units, killing and maiming civilians."
    Do you think that this shows what they could be doing in the future?

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  50. I am wondering if later, Ishmael's anger will catch up to him and he will try to fight the rebels. Maybe even alongside the resistance army. I am hoping that he tries to avenge his lost family, and I am also curious to see if he will ever see them again. But I have a feeling that when he comes close, everything will be ruined again by the rebels

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  51. Do you think that Ishmael knows that he will have to kill people and burn down villages?

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    1. I think that somewhere in his head he does know that but he doesn't want to think that or admit that he does. He doesn't want to believe it.

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  52. Do you think something bad will happen to any of the boys in the next couple of chapters we will read?

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    1. I think most of the boys, including Ishmael will get captured, and have to be boy soldiers.

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  53. on page 29 "Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into darkness before our wishes could meet them"

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  54. How will all of the violence effect Ishmael for the rest of his life?

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  55. How did the rebels become so insensitive to violence?

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  56. Is Ishmael going to find his parents again? If so, will his siblings be with him? I am always wondering this and it makes me depressed to think that he may never be able too

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