Blog Post #5

In my essay, I am exploring the whole idea of isolation within A long Way Gone, and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Thesis: Within Along Way Gone, and The Diary of Anne Frank both of the protagonists have people around them to talk too. They still choose to isolate themselves from the people and the world around them.

I am exploring why each of them hide their innocence to look stronger. I am also exploring both of these memories help show how the youth of America isolates themselves from each other.

I am using an article about iPod isolation that I found from CNN.com. I am also using some facts about cell phone use from Tmobile.com. Also using some sales quotes from Apple.com. I chose to use the Internet, because it was the most convenient place to find information.

"In the year 2008, apple sold an estimated 151million iPods in the United States. Where in the UK, only an estimated 22million iPods were sold." I bet you are wondering why I would choose this for the whole connection. Because it shows how much more Americans spend on objects that help further their isolation. Just the same way that the two characters use objects to isolation themselves. Beah uses the music that he would preform to before the war. He still had a part of his youth that valued human life. But once it was destroyed, he lost all value of his old self. With Anne, her diary was the object that forwarded her isolation. She started off the story as a young innocent girl, who thought that the world could not harm her. But as the story continues, and she goes into hiding, he becomes isolated not only physically within the attic, but also mentally within her mind. She could not be a little girl within the confines of the attic. The people she was with would make her feel bad about running around, or laughing, or anything childlike in their eyes. The only person that really understood was her diary. It helped to conceal her innocence.

The Transformation of Beah's Family

Beah had a long journey just through the first seven chapters. His life transforms in many different ways. One of the ways that he transforms is his family. In the beginning of the novel, Beah and his brother leave their home to go to the town of Mattru Jong. They are both just typical teenagers who's parents are divorced. They feel that nothing could ever happen to the people around them, and that their life would always be the same. "Since we intended to return the next day, we didn't say goodbye or tell anyone where we were going. We didn't know that we were leaving home, never to return." (Ch. 1, pg. 7) They don't really feel that their parents care about them that much. That is why they leave and don't tell their father where they are going. "I had not seen him for a while, as another stepmother had destroyed our relationship again. But that morning my father smiled at me as he came up the steps." (Ch. 1, pg. 10) His relationship with his father was a not all that good, and was far from worried that his father would care he left. As Beah was initiated into the war, he began going on the run. Beah ran out of food and went from traveling to an event, to escaping from the war that was starting to ruin his life. As they were running from the war, Beah started thinking, "I thought about where my family was, whether I would be able to see them again, and wished that they were safe and not too heartbroken about Junior and me." (Ch. 4, pg. 26) Beah starts to really miss his family, and also starts to understand the true meaning of what he left behind. The riff that the war has caused between him and his family, made him really look at the relationship he had with his family. He misses them, and even though he is with his brother, he misses and wonders about his mother and father. "I pressed my fingers on my eyelids to hold back my tears and wished that I could have my family together again." (Ch. 7, pg. 45) Forced into his loneliness after loosing his brother, Beah realizes that he misses his family. And understands that they are a really important aspect of his life. Beah's transformation from not really caring about his family, to missing them and hoping to one day see them again is a very important transformation that he goes through.

Chapter Title's

Ch. 17 Returning!



I named it returning, because of how Ishmeal is returning to his old self. With the help of Esther, (His Nurse, and friend) Beah rediscovers the part of him that died during the war. The sort of innocence that he lost was regained in a way. He learns about love and family again, rather than being independent and cold as he had been following his time fighting in the war. He is returning to a normal state of mind, and is dealing with the demons of his past.



Ch. 18 Reunion



For obvious reasons, I named this chapter reunion. Beah is told that he will be living with a foster family after his rehabilitation is done, but he tells them of his uncle that he had never met but only heard about. To Beah's surprise the people at the clinic find him and they bring him to meet Beah. Throughout the chapter, Beah is reunited with the feeling of family. He has a reunion with happiness. A reunion with a feeling that laid dormant within himself for years.



Ch. 19 New Beginnings

Beah goes to live with his Uncle and cousins. He finds out that they are all very much happy people. Which is a contradiction to his own personality. Beah is still going through the steps of learning how to be happy again. He is asked to go on an interview to be a representative of a conference in New York City about children across the world. Beah is chosen, and prepares to leave the place he was only just getting accustomed to.

Escape

"Drop the bag and hurry. The rebels are coming. Come on." (pg. 28 Ch. 4)
As Beah and his brother and friends are escaping from Mattru Jong for the second time. A boy is crossing the clearing where the rebels are guarding, and he is going slow because he is carrying a lot of things with him from his house. The boys tell him to hurry because the rebels are shooting at them.
The passage gives the reader a greater sense of the urgency that Beah and his friends are dealing with. They are looking to escape from the hell that is following them, but also shows their humanity. Most people would not care about others during moments such as these. But Beah and his friends do. It says a lot about not only their dyer need to escape, but also the innocence and human worth that they feel.

Diaspora

Beah takes a very emotional journey throughout the war. He goes through a lot of mental and physical anguish. When he first starts out on the journey with his new traveling companions, he is scared. But as the their travels progress, Beah and his companions slowly start to diminish as the children that they once were. Beah's friend Saidu descries it best when he says, "Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, party of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am." (Ch. 10, pg. 70) And by the time they are recruited into the army, and start killing rebels, they have officially lost their childhood innocence. Beah and his friends also go through physical changes as well. They start as starving, tired, and hurt children. And turn into well fed, drug addicted killing machines.
Beah looses the culture of humanity while going through the war. Once he becomes part of the army, he does not care about human life or worth anymore. He is happy to kill the people that killed his family. He no longer sees the rebels as people, as men and children, he sees them as murder's. The image of blood and gore no longer becomes terrifying for Beah or his friends, it becomes a source of power, as well as a reparation for what happened to them. They loose the grasp of human worth, and the culture of humanity.
Being in isolation was the biggest factor in causing Beah to loose his grip on humanity. Once he becomes separated from his brother, Beah goes into complete isolation. Even when he is with the new companions he is still trapped in his own isolation. Beah talks about how him and his companions never really talk about each other. Beah keeps himself within his head, which is the center of his isolation. The death of his family, and a few of his friends pushes him deeper into isolation. He does not get the opportunity to properly grieve, which only works against him in his slow diminish into a killer.

Word Mash: Essay 1

Promise Alcohol Grandma

Youth McDonalds Divorce

Love Regret Tears

Crying Sister Fear

Enemy Cigarette La Mirada

School Geo Prism Mother

Mind Innocence California

Home Daycare Heart

Fell Sorrow Hurt

Addiction Food Bitterness

David Johnson, a C.E.O of a major corporation was crying in a McDonald's in La Mirada California. He was tearful because of his recent divorce from his wife. Feeling as though his heart had exploded with his chest, he went to find some comfort within his family. He first went to his sister Sara's house. She was married and had 6 kids aging from 3 to 16. And on the particular day that her brother came over, her oldest had been suspended from school for having pornography. Her youngest was sent home from daycare for peeing on another child, and she just found out that her husband was having an affair with her best friend. Through her sorrow and bitterness, she could not give David the comfort he was looking for, and just brushed him off.

Hurt by the fact that his sister was not as comforting that he hoped. David turned to the one woman who was always there for him, his grandmother. When he arrived at his grandmothers house, he noticed she was sitting in her favorite chair watching Jerry Springer. His grandmother raised him, and his sister after his mother and father died in a car crash when they were 8. David had always loved watching Jerry Springer with his grandmother while she smoked a cigarette. Something was off about her that day though. As David drew closer to her, he realized that she was not breathing. His grandmother had passed away four days earlier, but no one had found her till that day. For David Johnson, this was the worst day of his life, and he was never the same again.