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Courtesy of Wade Bruffey

Lit circles post 1
A Long Way Gone.Page : 6 paragraph 8Dialouge between Ishmael & freinds"You mean you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?""Yes, all the time. ""Cool"Significance:I thought that this quote really portrayed the life of the main character before Ishmael left his homeland. His friends seem to have the opposite reaction to the events Ishmael witnessed. Ishmael's friends in America think it is cool, while he clearly does not. I think that the most logical explanation for this is because they have never experienced anything like a war before, they cannot understand how horrible it really must be.Personal Connection:I relate to this quote because I think that I would have the same reaction to the story Ishmael told, and think it was cool as well. It's probably a bad thing that most would think that something so horrible could be fun, but for those of us who have not experienced anything like it, it would not seem all that bad.Question: Would you have the same reaction to Ishmael's story as his friends did? Why?
Quote 2: Page 13, Paragraph 2
"I will get you to the hospital,my boy, and everything will be fine."
Significance:
I think this quote relates to Ishmael's life back in Sierra Leone because it was his job to inflict death upon others. It is so horrible to think that somewhere in the world, children my age, are being forced to kill each other, and make fellow human beings suffer. Ishmael doesn't think about what he is doing, and it seems like it has desensitized him from violence. I can see this being a future problem later on in the book when Ishmael is being rehabilitated.
Reflection:
I felt bad for Ishmael while reading this quote. I felt that it is wrong for any human being to have to endure any sort of pain and suffering that could have been prevented. Since Ishmael is the one having to do all of the dirty work in the civil war going on in Sierra Leone, He has to bring pain upon others.
Question:
Since we are of course not using children as soldiers, what are some other things that desensitize young Americans from violence and other things?