This memoir ends with a striking image, as Ishmael sees a mother telling her two children a story that he had also heard as a child. It's a memorable fable that touches on several key themes of the book, including violence, family, storytelling, childhood, and African village life. But it also carries a message of sacrifice. Discuss how this last message reverberates throughout the entire memoir.Further: What kind of sacrifices have you made in your life?
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it is very interesting and somewhat confusing that he chooses this to be the last thing he tells us. i think that this passage clearly describes his adventure through the memoir. no matter what Ishmael did something bad always happened. it is also fascinating that his answer the question was to benefit the greatest amount of people even if it cost him something. i think that also explains why he wrote the book, he wanted to help the most amount of people even if going back into those memories hurt him.
ReplyDeleteim also surprised that im the first to post and ill probably forget to check later and write a response.
ReplyDeleteI believe the story Ishmael told us at the end of his memoir describes his experience of the war, or what he hoped for. Due to war, Ishmael lost everything that was important to him. He lost his family, friend, home, and happiness. The horrible thing about the war is that it keeps on repeating. Once the RUF kills a civilian, a relative of that civilian will join the army and take revenge, and vice versa. The monkey giving hunters a difficult time to make decisions represents this. However, no one was willing to take the sacrifice and stop the monkey, which resulted in ongoing war. Ishmael probably hoped someone would stop the monkey, even if it costs something very important.
ReplyDeleteTo end something horrible from repeating, sacrifices must be made. In my case, whenever I have opposing ideas with my friends or family, I usually follow their opinion; unless I am 110% sure I am right. This sacrifice is made to keep the friendly relationship I am having with them.
Chae Hoon Lim
I mentioned above that Ishmael did not make any sacrifice but only wanted others to do so. But after reading Cartuner's opinion I do agree that Ishmael did make a sacrifice. This memoir must be one of his most difficult and hurting memories he had experienced. However, he shared this story to everyone else, trying to stop this from happening again. Remembering this experience to write this book must be very painful just like the nightmares he had in his childhood.
ReplyDeleteChae Hoon Lim
I think he properly mentioned about the sacrifice in the war. I think if he is right. There are always sacrifice in the war. People on both sides fight for what they believe in. They knew that they gonna be killed but they still fight. There are some persons get involved to the war and they lost everything just like Ismael. But let think about this, if there was no war, does Ismael had a chance to go to NY, and then he went there for living. Now,he had a better life than when he was home.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chae, if it is necessary to kill the monkey, we should do that. If they don't the bad thing are gonna keep happening. More people will be killed. Sacrifice is necessary for stop the war
It was a great way to end the book by telling that story, because that was pretty much the theme of the whole memoir. The book was about always making sacrifices. Ishmael has had made decsions that was a life or death sittution. Choosing to be part of the army and killing people and rebels, or being a civilian and getting killed. Even though i said Ishmael was one becoming like a rebel, i disagree now he had to make that sacrifice to live.
ReplyDeleteThe sacrifices i made were never this life threathening, i had to miss the tenth grade field trip for a volleyball touranment and now i am hoping i will get a scholarship.
I compeletly agreee with Brian if he never lost everything he would not have been on the trip to new york and met Laura. Now Ishmael is going back to see her and live in new york.
this was a really good way to end the book. i think this story that was told to the kids summarizes his expieriances of war. Whenever he had his gun with him something bad happened, people were always dieing or getting hurt. I think it means no matter what choices he made something bad came out of that choice. I like his answer to the question because he said he would shoot the monekey and sacrfic something of his own, so someone else could benifit from that. I think even though he has been through so much he is very unselfish. ishmael did make a sacrifice in life. i never had to make a huge life sacrfice in life. just small things like missing games or class trips so i can study. but now hopefully i will get into a good collge because of that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with carturner about how the book was a war to get out his feelings. that must have been really hard for him to write it. I also agree with Robert how writing the book was his own sacrifice.
This last story that he gives us shows a very difficult decision that may never really need to be made, but demonstrates how hard it is to make some choices. Throughout the whole book he was choosing what he thought would get him through and what would help him. He was constantly making sacrifices, be it for himself, or for a friend. At one point he sacrificed his friends that he was with, not in a sense that they died, but he chose to be alone and go off by himself. It wasn’t the biggest choice he made, but it affected him and how he was going to live. I think this was a good way to end his memoir. It gave a nice conclusion and let the reader actually think of what they would do in that situation (I did at least). It wasn’t what I was expecting but I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I haven’t had to make that many sacrifices in my life and I can’t think of a huge one at the moment. So here's the first one I can think of... I used to be the youngest and was the one that got the ‘younger sibling’ attention (obviously). Though when my little sister was born, suddenly I had to become a big sister and take some responsibility that I wasn’t used to. This wasn’t a sacrifice that I had a choice in, but it has affected my life for the past 7 years and will continue to do so throughout the rest of my existence. In this I have had to share a room with my little sister and more. It’s not a crazy sacrifice, I know, but it’s still a sacrifice none the less.
Writing this memoir was definitely a sacrifice in Ishmael’s life, I agree with Chae. This story was as personal as it gets and writing this probably took a lot out of him. It was a good sacrifice for him to make because it really did spread the awareness of what was/is going on. I think it would have also been a sacrifice that hurt him a bit because these memories aren’t sunshine and daisies. These were deep feelings that he unburied and brought out to show everyone.
~Rohde~
Perfect way to end the story. It really had me thinking. sacrifices was made all over there his life. you wont really be able to go through life without having choices. Once u pick one, you've just sacrificed the other side of the outcome and how your life would have been if you took a different turn. I think I know a lil about sacrifices... Me switching schools was. i didnt even see it coming. but i felt like in order for me too be a successful person in life i had to leave all my best friends and people and family that i been goin to school with all my life. Some i havent seen since i left.
ReplyDeleteI think that that was a great story to end with. It shows all of the hard choices that the boys had to make in their troubles in Sierra Leon. Ishmael had a lot of hard choices ever since the trip to the "Rap-Off" before the attacks on his home town. The story that is at the end of the book has a big choice that he made a commenmt that he would never tel his mother. It shows that he would sacrifice to save the life of another and I feel that he shows a lot of himself in that quote. He has learned a lot from his experiances. It wass also interesting as David says to see this at the end of the book.
ReplyDelete~Zach Thibault
I think David and Chae, he does not want to start what happended again. He wants better things for himself and for others.
ReplyDelete