go ask alice #1

I'm really enjoying this book. It's very interesting. Some of the parts are confusing because "Alice" has a lot of trouble making up her mind about things and some of her later entries are very vague. She seems very indecisive. I like how she describes stuff though, she makes it seem really real. Like when she describes her acid trips, I can almost understand what she's feeling because she uses a lot of adjectives to help her describe how it feels. I feel bad for her though, because she went through a lot. She starts out so innocent and normal. She worries about things that normal people her age worry about. But once she started getting into drugs, she turned into a completely different person. It was hard to believe she was only 15. She grew up really fast. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book because it's really interesting.

choice book

1. Go Ask Alice
2. To Kill A Mockingbird
3. The Boy In Striped Pajamas
4. Black Hawk Down

a long way gone ch. 17-18

I was glad that Ishmael and some of his friends were getting their lives back on track. And I also think it's good that Beah is starting to talk to Esther because I think that one of the reasons why he was having such a hard time is that he was bottling up all of his emotions. After he starts talking to Esther and listening to rap music and writing lyrics again, he seems so much happier. He also finnaly goes to a talent show, just like the one that he was going to go to before he became a soldier. In chapter 18, Beah meets his "family." He also reconnects with one of his childhood friends. It's like his life is finnaly starting to go back to normal.

a long way gone ch. 15-16

In the beginning of chapter 15, Beah says how he has gotten used to killing people because that's basically all he's been doing for 2 years. It's hard to believe that he went through all of that. It would be awful. Beah's and his friends' behavior throughout these chapters really surprised me. It seems like he is actually enjoying killing people and fighting. I think that his activities are the effects of the drugs. Subconsciously, he is still himself but that's buried underneath all of the pills. They have made him completely numb to all of his surroundings and I don't think he knows what he's doing. It's sad to see someone so young go through all of that. One thing that confused me in chapter 16 was when he was turning on the water for the sinks and showers and stuff. He said that he saw blood coming out of the faucet. I don't know if he's being delusional and imagining this or if the water really was contaminated with blood. At the end of that chapter, it was nice to see him go to the city. It was a good change from all of the fighting.

a long way gone ch. 13-14

These two chapters were, like most of the other recent chapters, very intense. There was a lot of blood and gore and fighting. It was almost hard to read because it was so graphic and violent but I got through it. I can't even begin to imagine how terrified Ishmael Beah must be, to be strung out on drugs and witnessing all of these deaths. Especially when he is watching his friends be killed, and then taking their weapons from them. It's awful that he's killing people too, although he can't do anything about it. It's like kill or be killed, because if he refuses then he will get killed. In chapter 14, it seems like all Beah does is smoke marijuana and do other drugs. I can't believe that he would do those things, considering the way they make him feel from previous experiences. I would probably go crazy if I had to experience that. At the end of chapter 14, I think what they are doing is sick. They are having a competition on who can kill someone the fastest. I didn't really enjoy reading those chapters.

Books

Driving With Dead People
Twilight
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (it's the first in the series)
To Kill A Mocking Bird

I chose those because I've already read Twilight and Harry Potter, and I think they are incredible books. I've never read Driving With Dead people but it sounds interesting. I have never read To Kill A Mocking Bird either but I want to.

a long way gone ch. 10

I thought that chapter 10 was kind of a weird chapter. There were a lot of strange and sad things that happened. One of the sad events was Saidu dying. I knew it was going to happen, because he says that every day he feels like a little bit of him dies. That foreshadows his death. Also, when he faints several times, that's a sign that he is getting weaker and weaker and that he doesn't have much life left in him. I thought that the ghost thing was creepy too. I think he was delusional and I don't think that the people crossing the bridge were ghosts. They were just real people. The end of the chapter was sad, when they were burying Saidu. Ishmael Beah sounded so hopeless in the last paragraph, when he was wondering what was going to become of him and his friends.

a long way gone ch. 11+12

Chapters 11 and 12 were pretty intense. There is a lot of blood and fighting. I hate Gasemu for lying to Ishmael Beah about his family. In the beginning of the book, he says that he never saw his brother again. When Gasemu gives him hope about possibly seeing his brother, I knew it was a lie. It was wrong of Gasemu to lie to the boys and to get their hopes up. I'm almost happy that he died, so that he couldn't mislead them anymore. But at the same time, it was sad that he died. The way he died was very violent, it sounded like he was going through a lot of suffering. Chapter 12 was very graphic, especially when Beah descibes his nightmares. Most of chapter 12 was just Beah learning how to fight, so it wasn't that bad.

a long way gone ch. 8-9

Chapters 8 and 9 were a little bit better than some of the previous chapters. I was glad that in chapter 8 Ishmael Beah was able to find food and water and somewhere to sleep. Although those things were good, the loneliness was probably unbearable to him. I wouldn’t be able to stand not seeing or talking to any humans for about a month. Finally at the end of the chapter, Beah runs in to some people he knew before all of the war and everything and a few others. They helped each other out and if they hadn’t, some of them would probably be dead. Chapter 9 got worse though, because of the heat and walking through burning sand without any shoes on. I think that would be the worst pain ever, to have your feet burned so bad that you couldn’t walk. It was nice to have a break from reading about blood and violence, but I can’t say that chapter 9 was fun to read either.

a long way gone ch. 6-7

Chapters 6 and 7 were very sad chapters. One positive thing about them was the fact that they weren’t as gory and bloody as the previous chapters. Nonetheless, they were still depressing, especially chapter 7. In chapter 6, I thought it was funny when the rap cassettes fell out of Beah’s pocket, and the guards released them after listening to the songs and deciding that the boys weren’t rebels. It was like the rap music saved their lives. One of the sad parts of chapter 6 was when Beah and his brother and friends are made to work in the fields. The way Beah describes how much pain his hands are in over those two weeks almost makes my hands hurt. The end of chapter 6, when Beah gets separated from his older brother, Junior, and his friends, was very sad. Chapter 7 was a mixture of sad and happy. In the beginning and through the middle were the sad parts when Beah keeps going back to the village to see if anyone is alive. He finds Kaloko, one of his brother’s friends, who keeps him company while he searches for the others. Finally, Beah gives up and starts walking. He doesn’t know where he is going, and he doesn’t have food or anything, but he just keeps walking until at the very end, he runs into a family at a river. It’s obvious that they don’t trust him, but they reluctantly point him in the right direction. Beah stays at a few unnamed villages along the way, but still suffers from loneliness.

a long way gone ch 3-5

I was glad that some things calmed down in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters. There were still some parts that were difficult to read without taking a break from reading, but for the most part it was not as bad as the first two chapters. I can’t imagine being in Beah’s situation. I feel so bad for him and his friends because that’s probably the worst thing ever to happen to someone so young and innocent and who doesn’t deserve that at all. I would be so scared if I was him. I also can’t stand the thought of going hungry for days. It really shows how good Americans live and how different Africa is. Even in America in 1993, when the book took place, everything was still better than how Africa was. At the end of chapter 5, I was more than happy to stop reading and put the book away. I’m not looking forward to reading the rest of the book, but I think I can handle it.

a long way gone ch. 1-2

The first two chapters of A Long Way Gone were sad. It was hard to read them because they were very intense and graphic too. The first couple pages were okay; there was nothing about all of the fighting and everything. The main character and all of his friends seemed like just normal kids. If I didn’t know what the book was about before I read it, I would think that it wasn’t about the war. I was shocked when the part came about the blood and everything. I almost had to put the book down but for some reason I couldn’t because it was suspenseful and I wanted to read more of it and see what happened. The part where the woman was carrying her baby on her back and when the baby was shot was the part that really stunned me. That page was the one that really got to me. The second chapter was also very descriptive and intense, even though it was just a dream and not real. I think it’s amazing that Ishmael Beah can write about that stuff after he’s experienced it; I would want to forget it all. I’m impressed with the book but also kind of afraid of getting to parts that are going to be really bad.

Ibo's responses to white men

The Ibo people’s responses to the white men at first were that they didn’t like them. Most of the villagers didn’t agree with the customs of Christianity. There were a few that followed the white men but most of them didn’t. The Christians were stunned by the way the Ibo people acted. They thought that killing twins was wrong and they thought that the Ibo people were heathens. They also didn’t understand why they thought there was more than one god. Then the Christians converted some of the Ibo people to Christianity. The converts left the village. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, converted and Okonkwo didn’t consider him his son anymore. Once the Christians got to know the Ibo people better, they stated being nicer to them. They built schools, churches and a hospital. Mr. Brown was one of the reverends and he was very nice. He tried to understand the Ibo culture. Mr. Smith was Mr. Brown’s replacement when he got sick and left, and he was the exact opposite of Mr. Brown. He was mean and sent a lot of people to jail. He doesn’t want anyone in his religion who isn’t 100% devoted to Christianity. For the most part, the British don’t really agree with how the Africans live their life. They think their religion is weird so they try to convert them to Christianity. Most of the Ibo people don’t like the British very much either.

"Mother is Supreme"

Okonkwo thinks that his life is awful because he got exiled to his mother's homeland. Uchendu gives a speech to him about how Okonkwo's life isn't bad at all. Uchendu tells him about how he lost all of his wives and most of his children, and how Okonkwo still has all of his wives and children and everything. Okonkwo is disrespecting his mother and her homeland because he doesn't want to be there. Uchendu says that his mother was there to help Okonkwo and to not displease the dead by denying help. Uchendu tries to make Okonkwo have more respect for his mother and her homeland, because usually a family revolves around the father and the women in the family are his servants. Uchendu tells about how the children belong to the father, not the mother, and how the father belongs to his fatherland and not his motherland. He asks Okonkwo why he thinks this is true and Okonkwo says he does not know why. Uchendu then tells Okonkwo that he isn't as smart as he thinks he is, that he is still a child. Uchendu wants Okonkwo to appreciate his life and he tries to get Okonkwo to appreciate his mother.

Opinion of Okonkwo

I think that Okonkwo is a good person, even though I don't like the fact that he beats his wives and children. I know that it's acceptable in their town, but I don't agree with women and children being treated like property instead of human beings. Okonkwo seems to know what he wants in life though. He wants to be a successful farmer and have a big family. He does anything to not become like his father, Unoka, because he was lazy, poor, and a failure. Okonkwo does not have any tolerance for people like Unoka. He beats his sons if they show any signs of laziness. As for the farming, Okonkwo produced many crops of yams. Okonkwo is also admirable for a lot of other things. When he was only 18, he became known as one of the best wrestlers in Umuofia. Okonkwo was also looked up to because he had the strength and bravery to fight in wars, unlike his father. Another thing that makes Okonkwo admirable is that he got all of his success by himself. He didn’t inherit a barn from Unoka. There wasn’t even a barn to inherit. He worked hard in his youth to gain all of his success and to become a hero in his town. Overall, Okonkwo is a very honorable character because of all his achievements. 

How the story will end

I think that P.S. is going to confess that he cheated and he will be punished, but not as bad as if he was caught cheating. His dad will probably not be happy with him because he did not expect something like that to happen. The school should punish P.S. because cheating is wrong, but his punishment shouldn't be too bad because he turned himself in and was honest about it.

fill-ins

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was a burger.

2. Homework is something I intensely dislike.

3. The full moon looks weird.

4. I don't have one is one of my favorite local expressions.

5. Sometimes it's best to be happy.

6. Ironman is the best movie I've seen so far this year!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to the game at Lucas Oil, tomorrow my plans include being with my friends and Sunday, I want to do something fun!

first impressions

My first impression on most people when they first meet me is that they think I am very shy and quiet. Once they get to know me better though, their opinion of me changes and they realize that I’m actually not shy and quiet but very outgoing. The majority of my friends thought I was a quiet person until we became closer friends and then they changed their minds about me. My first impressions on people aren’t usually that good because I can be shy when I first meet someone. Sometimes people think that because I’m shy at first that means I’m boring, but that’s really not true. It’s like judging someone when you don’t know that person at all, which I don’t think is a good thing to do. When my friends told me their first impressions of me, I wasn’t really surprised when they thought I was shy because most people tell me that. A lot of my friends’ opinions about me have changed but some still think I’m not as outgoing as I am around them as I am around other people. I can’t change their opinions so what they think of me now is probably going to remain the same as what they thought of me when I first met them. I don’t like that I can come off as shy and quiet, but I can’t change that so whatever my first impression is on some people is going to remain the same until their opinion changes.

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