The book/memoir I'm currently reading is A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah.
The quote that has stuck out the most to me has been on page 7 of the story, and it starts,
"On the morning that we left for Mattru Jong, we loaded our backpacks with notebooks of lyrics we were working on and stuffed our pockets with cassettes of rap albums... 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."
I found this quote particularly important because I think early on, it sets the tone for the entire memior. It also raises some key questions, "was the narrator regretful that he didn't say goodbye to his parents?", "will he ever find his parents or loved ones in the village he'd never see again?", etc. The quote is important because it is one that causes you to think, what would've it been like if you were in the narrator's situation? A boy at an extremely young age in Sierra Leone, in a time of intense war and outcry, leaving his village on a seemingly normal day -- never to return to him or its inhabitants ever again.
Hm...
Sincerely,
Katie
1 comment:
I'm reading the same book as you, and that quote stuck with me as well. Like you said, it set the tone for the rest of the memoir; a feeling of uncertainty and hesitancy. As the readers we aren't sure what's about to take place in these boys' lives, and for me it leaves me with a slightly unsettling feeling.
I think the questions you raised were really interesting and great questions to think about. When I read this quote, I didn't really think too much about what was going to happen, but now that I look back at the quote it's interesting to think about the boys' futures. I have no idea what it must be like to be in that situation, but I think that if I did end up not knowing whether I would ever see my parents again, I would be very upset and not know what to do with myself. For me, the regret would be immense and hard to handle.
I'm glad you brought this quote up because I didn't see it as in depth as you did, but now you have, I am too and it just brings me further into the story.
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