“Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night.” Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde’s quote relates to Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier for its powerful message emphasized by its anguished tone. Poverty, sin, misery, and shame are all key themes Beah encounters on his journey to survive. Everyday is a constant struggle, and in that struggle lays fear as well as a hope for a better day.
A direct relationship between Beah’s memoir and Wilde’s quote is the use of personification. Throughout the hardships described in A Long Way Gone, Beah often personifies nature, similar to the way Wilde personifies these depressing nouns. One of many examples is found on page 80, “Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.” Again, the solemn tone prevails in this quote. The night weeps, and the boys’ wishes are unheard, very much like the first four words of Wilde’s quote reading, “Through our sunless lanes.” Both of these quotes depict the hopelessness and sorrow of the scene they are describing.
The diction of poverty, sin, misery, and shame are very closely related to the themes present throughout A Long Way Gone. The poverty of the Sierra Leone has been one of the many factors of this civil war. As in Wilde’s quote, “[…] creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes”, this can be seen as the boys’ starvation from lack of basic foods as well as the power hungry RUF and corrupt government that has led to these horrific attacks. The boys are stripped of their wealth in innocence and pride as children – they have become poor in this sense. The sins and miseries of everyday since they were separated from their families are inescapable. The sins of the RUF, the government, and even these young brainwashed boys mount up because of the horrible conditions in this colony of Africa. Sin has a sodden face because it is saturated with disaster and unforeseen guilt. The misery of the lives of these boys ranging from the torture of not knowing what has happened to their families, to, as later described in the memoirs, the misery of living as a soldier with only drugs, lies, and killing to guide them. The presence of shame sits with them at night because of the later acknowledgement for what they have done, and how Sierra Leone as a whole is in shame for how this colony’s own people are slaughtering one another. It is the shame Beah later feels that keeps him human, that reminds him of who he really is and how he can change for the better.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The line “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living,” (113) is a very powerful sentence written by Oskar’s grandfather. It provides great insight into how he feels and what he thinks. This line shows how Thomas runs from who he is, or rather who he could have been.
When Thomas tries to leave his life behind to start a new one, he finds himself unable to verbally speak with anyone. From his isolation, frustration, and helplessness, Oskar’s grandfather becomes weak in spirit and will. When Anna died bearing his to be first child, Thomas was devastated. He could not look at any other woman without constantly thinking of Anna. Still on page 113, he even says, “I’m thinking of Anna, I would give everything never to think about her again […].” This adds to the strain he feels. Ever since she died, Thomas has run from his identity. He could have been a father to Oskar’s dad, he could have stayed a loyal husband to Oskar’s grandmother, he could have been a supporting father-in-law to Oskar’s mom, and he could have been a loving grandfather to Oskar, but instead he consciously chose to escape all of these lives. And as a result, he finds himself flooded by more emotions of loss. He knows that he is not the same person he would have been had he stayed with Oskar’s grandmother. When he says he can hear his bones straining from all the weight of the lives he is not living, he knows that all the responsibilities and problems are finally catching up with him. That old saying when a person has, “A weight on their shoulders,” seems to be what Thomas is feeling, but to an extreme.
Foer meant for this line to emphasize on how Thomas struggles with who he is and who he could have been. In one portion of the story, found on page 273, Thomas is reading the labels of loved ones lost to the attack on the Twin Towers. While this takes place later on in the novel, after Thomas writes, “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living,” perhaps Foer wants the audience to recognize the tie between this line and that scene. Connecting these two parts creates a realization of how Thomas may currently feel. Thomas, after reading those labels, may now feel guilty for not living his life the way he wishes to. Now, he may feel the strain of all those who perished in the Twin Towers because he is not living his life while he is alive. All those who died in this attack lost their chances to fix their mistakes and continue being the people they need to be for themselves and their loved ones. Knowing this, Foer may want to draw a link between those who died and Thomas who is not dead, but yet cannot lead a life he is privileged to have.
When Thomas tries to leave his life behind to start a new one, he finds himself unable to verbally speak with anyone. From his isolation, frustration, and helplessness, Oskar’s grandfather becomes weak in spirit and will. When Anna died bearing his to be first child, Thomas was devastated. He could not look at any other woman without constantly thinking of Anna. Still on page 113, he even says, “I’m thinking of Anna, I would give everything never to think about her again […].” This adds to the strain he feels. Ever since she died, Thomas has run from his identity. He could have been a father to Oskar’s dad, he could have stayed a loyal husband to Oskar’s grandmother, he could have been a supporting father-in-law to Oskar’s mom, and he could have been a loving grandfather to Oskar, but instead he consciously chose to escape all of these lives. And as a result, he finds himself flooded by more emotions of loss. He knows that he is not the same person he would have been had he stayed with Oskar’s grandmother. When he says he can hear his bones straining from all the weight of the lives he is not living, he knows that all the responsibilities and problems are finally catching up with him. That old saying when a person has, “A weight on their shoulders,” seems to be what Thomas is feeling, but to an extreme.
Foer meant for this line to emphasize on how Thomas struggles with who he is and who he could have been. In one portion of the story, found on page 273, Thomas is reading the labels of loved ones lost to the attack on the Twin Towers. While this takes place later on in the novel, after Thomas writes, “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living,” perhaps Foer wants the audience to recognize the tie between this line and that scene. Connecting these two parts creates a realization of how Thomas may currently feel. Thomas, after reading those labels, may now feel guilty for not living his life the way he wishes to. Now, he may feel the strain of all those who perished in the Twin Towers because he is not living his life while he is alive. All those who died in this attack lost their chances to fix their mistakes and continue being the people they need to be for themselves and their loved ones. Knowing this, Foer may want to draw a link between those who died and Thomas who is not dead, but yet cannot lead a life he is privileged to have.
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