Week+1

=**A Long Way Gone: __Memoirs of a Soldier Boy__**= ** ART FORM: **

Just like what the painting illustrates — clear blue sky with a lot of clouds, no houses, random body parts on the ground — the book, __A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Soldier Boy__, tells a story of life during a very deadly war. The story took place in Sierra Leone, a country in Africa, and the United States. During the war, a lot of towns were deserted because rebels attacked them. A lot of people were killed, and dead bodies were left in the streets. Towns were basically graveyards. Like the book, the painting shows a very horrifying image of body parts left in an empty field, which seems to exemplify death.


 * Literary Luminary**
 * "One of the messengers was a young man. They carved thier initials, RUF (revolutionary United Front) on his body with a hot bayonet and chopped off all his fingers with the exception of his thumbs. These rebels called this mutilation "one love." Before the war, people raised a thumb to say "One love" to each other, an expression popularized by the love and influence of reggae music." (21)
 * Ishmael's father: "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." (54)

__**Words**__
 * //Crapes//-Sneakers
 * //Sleepers//-Flip-flops
 * //Palampo//-Single


 * Discussion**
 * 1) Why is the government completely absent? Why doesn't it help it's people or the children in the country?
 * 2) What has brought about the stereotype of young boys? How does it effect the journey of Ishmael and his friends?
 * 3) Does their culture and language play a role in the story? How is the culture being invaded and destroyed by the war?

One connection that we found was persepolis. The book persepolis an autobiography of Marjanie Satrapi, She startes to the book off when she was a little girl before the Iranian revolution took place. Kids would play on the street and women would walk around without a vail on, but later drastics changes are made to theie culture. At the beginning of the revolution, they were first intstructed that all women need to where a vail, and as time passed by the revolution leaders began to inforce stricter laws, to the point where Marjane's parent sent her off to austria to continue her studies because Iran was no longer a safe place. In connection to A long way gone: a Memoirs of a boy soldier, after their town was attack by the rebels they never went back because it was too dangerous to back. In both books, the main character fled from home because their home was considered an dangerous place.
 * __Connections:__**