"A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah

*SPOILER ALERT*

*Reading this Summary may Hinder your* *Reading Experience, Should you Decided to* *Eventually Read this Novel*

     Investing the time to read "A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah, would be a bright idea for almost anyone.  From thrilling scenes of blood and gore, to intellectual moments of contemplation about rivaling societies, Ishmael Beah probably considered everything from his childhood when he wrote this adventure of a memoir.  He tells the vivid story of his early life with a fully honest, and therefore nightmarish, style.  Nothing went easy for him, and he sure didn't sugercoat any of it when he described everything in his story.  He admits to drug addiction, competitively slitting enemies throats, casualties with innocents, and so many other factors of his childhood that will forever more have an impact on his behavior.

Ishmael Beah speaks about the Sierra Leone Situation

     Aside from young Ishmael Beah, my favorite character was the Commander of Ishmael's squadron.  According to Mr. Beah's recollection of his army days, the commander gathered together a bunch of poor African boys, and transformed them all into ruthless killing machines.  Probably supported by his consent, the members of his unit always had access to marijuana, cocaine, and brown-brown (an illegal African concoction of drugs).  If one put his or her mind to it, one might come to the realization that this Commander really knew what he was doing.  He was able to efficiently train tiny boys, eventually making them truly able to fight in crossfires, and the drugs on the side were a big factor.  They eliminated much of the people's need for sleep and feeling for pain.  These helpful side-effects (given the situation at hand) were enough to make drugs a positive thing for almost every soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war, as Ishmael eventually discovers.  During the times of the war, drug addiction was not a worry.  In fact, the side-effects of said drugs were the primary reason for their uses many cases.  Several times during Ishmael's story, there is a mentioned moment where Mr. Beah, or one of his former comrades, recieves at least one bullet wound, but the drugs they had previously taken had helped them ignore it.  There is even a moment during the story where Ishmael's leg gets swiss cheesed around the outside by at least three bullets, which is told when he narrates, "I didn't even feel the excruciating pain going on in my leg, as a result of the after effect of the drugs I had been taking"(166).

   Once forced into a system of rehabilitation and schooling, after boatloads of resistance to authority, Ishmael Beah subtly shifts to a new perspective on the war and his drug addiction.  He gives up on trying to scavenge little bits of drugs here and there, and he establishes a new opinion of fighting for Sierra Leone: bloodshed is intolerable.  He simply can't stand the ongoing chaos so much that he eventually manages to escape Sierra Leone and find a refugee house.  It is inferrable that he soon got a flight to America, on account of the fact that he wrote this memoir and currently lives in the U.S..

"Of Beetles and Angels," by Selamawi Asgedom

Selamawi "Mawi" Asgedom

  "Of Beetles and Angels," by the rags-to-Harvard Selamawi Asgedom, is a truly masterful story of his childhood, ranging from African bully survival to trick-or-treating incidents, and should be read by anyone that wants to be presented with a full understanding of giving, or that wants to read a quick book about an African-born child attempting to be the best person he can be for himself, his family, and everyone else--in most cases.

  One of the most beautifully astonishing, yet surprising, moments from any book I’ve ever read was the moment when Selamawi was going through Tewolde’s belongings after he died and noticed a picture of five-year-old from Africa and flipped the card over.  He then looked at the print on the backside of the card that read, “Here is your child.  Thank you for sponsoring him.  With your twenty dollars a month, he goes to school, receives medical care, and eats healthy food”(81).  Tewolde honestly is just the most unbelievably generous person in the world.  Aside from the $240 that this one donation would accumulate to annually, Tewolde had barely a cent to his name.  Until his final job of his life, he was actually making around a maximum of $25 dollars a week, meaning that he really was just giving away last bit of money that he had.  He didn’t just donate to “Compassion International,” but he additionally cared for people on the streets and could very well have donated to several other charities, too.  My favorite character of the book is Tewolde, Selamawi’s close and beloved brother, for Tewolde seemed to be an example of an ideal person.  Even though he was raised from rags and no riches, he still managed to be more charitable than most other people in the entire world, mostly sentimentally, though, on account of the fact that he never had much money to donate.  Although his budget was low, he nonetheless consistently donated to charities and aided people living on the streets in person, too—with almost no help.  Almost all of the people mentioned in this entire story were generous or humane in some way.  At times, there were chances to hate others forever, but Selamawi eventually forgave just about everyone for the terrible things that the many people had committed to him.  He even considers looking the other ways for dangerous bullies and criminals.  A gigantic child that tortured Selamawi and his entire family back in Africa even stole the family’s dinner…Selamawi claims it was okay because that same bully was later added to the casualties of African war.  I can relate to many of the characters in this story, but it was more like tiny little tidbits of personality of specific people of the plethora of characters involved in the book, so I can’t really place my finger on any specific people that Selamawi discusses.
  One interesting story that Selamawi tells is that of Tewolde’s business plan to begin a cleaning franchise and eventually replace the whole system of night janitors at the local library.  The father of Selamawi and his siblings is always ordering his children to work as hard as possible in school and to focus on education and not to get caught up in any predicaments outside of school.  Well, the family’s dad always influenced his kids to start on an occupation in order to earn extra money earlier in their lives, but he probably never expected Tewolde to get so caught up in working that he would dream skipping college to get a jump start on a lesser job.  Well, this potential job for Tewolde could have actually been a very amazing one, being the boss of himself and earning a much fatter pay check than Tewolde had seen earlier in his previous teenager-jobs.  Tewolde actually had his business going for him, but, according to Selamawi—who kept his head in schooling and eventually graduated from Harvard—Tewolde was killed by a drunk driver midway through his senior year.  If that horrible event had not occurred, “ProClean” could have been one of this nation’s top cleaning companies to date.

  Living in a family that is religiously mixed between a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, my family celebrates both Chanukah and Christmas annually.  Even though I am fairly young, however, I do not simply get a surplus of video games, football jerseys, and other stuff that I always love getting, and my sister does not just get make-up and other random girl-objects.  We all trade presents instead, especially during the nights of Chanukah, where we actually constructed our own scheme of giving and receiving an equal quantity of gifts.  Since the 8 nights of Chanukah spread out the time of gift-giving, we really do understand the powerful feeling that giving things to others can help you end up with.  Not only should one give during holidays, though, but ne should attempt to always give to others.  Selamawi depicts the core of gift-giving during the his last words of the book by summing up that “of the gifts that we can give, the greatest is to see beauty in each other—in essence, to give beauty to each other.  When we give that beauty, we prepare our hearts to receive it back”(148), of course acknowledging that non-materialistic giving can be the best giving of all.

Written by:

The HAMMER

"The Old Man and the Sea," by Ernest Hemingway

  If you're looking for a classic adventure novel that is a quick read, yet is astonishingly vivid, then "The Old Man and the Sea" would probably be a wise choice for you.   A novel by Ernest Hemingway, it was published by Scribner in 1952.  It is a realistic-fiction story that consists of adventure, and common philosophies of life and camaraderie.  This book fits the genre of journey by telling the story of an old man going out far beyond the normal waters that all of the other men fish in.  He believes that true fishing can only be done far out from the shore, and far out from the rest of the world, which is where he decides to paddle his boat to, bringing him into a battle with a fish that is larger than any other he had ever seen or even heard of.

Ernest Hemingway

  One very meaningful passage from the book was, as the old man harpooned a shark in the brain, the text read, “He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy” (102).  I immediately recognized Santiago’s fighting spirit that was being resembled by this sentence, for his hope had been previously drained, yet his strong will to get home and defend his catch was so strong that his hopelessness seemed to almost be non-existent as a factor.  Another meaningful moment from the book was Santiago saying to himself “’You’re tired…You’re tired inside’” (112), on account of the fact that this was yet another part of the story where Santiago’s overall confidence broke down right before him, as if he had worked so hard for the past day or two to catch a 1500-pound fish for nothing.

  My favorite passage from the novel was when Santiago stated that “’There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over’” (96), for this quote from the old man is a great example of his work ethic and how aware of his situation of this dire moment he was.  Once the humungous fish was caught, he didn’t drift off into a long slumber.  He knew that he would have to keep himself laboring in order to end up bringing this immense catch home.

  My favorite character was the old man, for his strong will was certainly a personality trait to be admired.  I read in awe at how he was able to last several days in a boat while tending to a fishing line, nothing for him to feed on except for what he could scavenge from the sea.  The way he spent approximately 24 hours arm-wrestling non-stop against one of the toughest men he knew is no doubt an obvious clue to his seriously high level of mental fortitude and endurance during difficult tests of strength and determination.  I also truly felt terrible for him every time a shark came and squandered a portion of the caught marlin.  I can sort of see a connection between Santiago and I, for the way he battles through his suffering while out on his trek is relative to the way I play through pain, and sometimes minor injuries, during football games, wrestling matches, and several other sports.  Really, all the time, everyone has his or her will tested, for just getting out of bed in the morning or doing homework on time could be considered quite a challenge in some cases.  There’s a little bit of Santiago’s strong spirit in everyone.

Written by:

The HAMMER