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?
Now please take time to critique one of your classmate's comments. Remember that good comments justify, specify, argue, extend, question, explain or elaborate!
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the story at the end of this book just likes the summary.A monkey was sitting on a tree,didn't even move when the hunter got near it ,and gave two choices that even whatever he'd choose,there must be the sacrifice.A monkey seemed like to represented both the rebels and the army,it asked Ishmael to choose between die and fight.Ishmael also thought of the answer and he chose to kill it although he would say sorry to his mom,and in the real world,he had chosen to fight.Any way would lead to the sacrifice,he chose to kill a monkey then he lost his mom or he chose to fight and he needed to kill other people,and if his family still alive,he might be asked to kill them.
ReplyDeleteIn addition,the hunter killed a monkey for food not only for his family but also for his entire village.Villagers in ishmael's country contributed their achivements as food.
Ishmael couldn't negotiate with a monkey. He couldn't negotiate with someone not to bring the war ,he couldn't negotiate with the leader of the rebels not to burn his village or he couldn't negotiate with the lieutenant to allow him to stay without fighting as well because he had nothing to negotiate, he was not that rich to trade,he had no weapons ,and he had no power!He had no choice but used violence-fight for the army or in anotherway,he chose to kill a monkey.
He mentioned this story as his feelings,as he wanted to express all the conflicts within him,as all the horrible things that he hda sufferred.
I'm not sure if it's called sacrifice or not.I left a normal life that i was familiar with-my parents,my family,all of my friends and my little dream to came here.As i said,i made achoice that i don't know if it's good or bad.I must wait till the end.
The story by the moher at the end basically says that there are always consequences in drastic situations. No matter what the hunter chose, there were going to be consequences on both sides. Ishmael experienced this too throughout the book and realized no matter what he did, either fight or die, both were going to end badly; one situation forcing him to do horrendous things he would never consider doing, and the other ending him. Now, for the hunter, he was troubled greatly as he had to choose between his mother and his father. He would never have gotten into this situation unless he never went hunting as Ishmael would never have gotten into the trouble he got into with his friends unless he... well it was inevitable that he would be thrown into this situation. But both were doing what was necessary: For the hunter, he was hunting the monkey for food and as for Ishmael and his friends, he was just being a kid.
ReplyDeleteIn my life, I have made many sacrifices, as well. For sure, not nearly as drastic as what has happened in this book, but still sacrifices I never wanted to make. Usually they just include me studying more than playing video-games.
For Ngan, I feel as if she took a huge leap of faith coming to a new country, a foreign country who's native language wasn't her vernacular, either. That must have been extremely difficult, especially when you originally had a much better, easier and more comfortable life, before. Also, leaving your family would be very difficult, too (to come to a new and unknown places where you might have guardian parents too). So, yeah I think your sacrifice is a pretty big one and nothing I could ever compare to.
--Victor Ng
A monkey said to hunter "if you shot me your mother will die if you do not your father will die." Whatever the hunter chooses one of his parent will die. It is obvious that he does not have choice. Sacrifice is a consequence of one's choice. This story tells you that sometimes you have to choose whether the consequence is bad or not. Or whatever you choose you will have a bad consequence. However, I interpret the story in this way; the hunter put himself in that miserable situation: like Victor said. There could have been a lot of different choice that might not led him to that miserable situation.
ReplyDeleteAs I said the scrifice is consequence of bad choice that a person made. If a person made a good choice he would not have to make a a sacrifice. For example, in the story, when Ishamel was about to meet his family, he delayed the meeting! In that kind of chaos, later is not preserved. In matter of second rebel can come to that village and kill them all. That bad choice led him to absolute seperation from their family. Not going to that village made him live. But no one knows what would have happened if he went to that village earlier.
The biggest sacrifice in my life happened as result of I coming to USA. However, I also gained a lot. Therefore I say it was not a bad choice that the gaining evens out the sacrifice.
I agree with the three of them. Throughout the memoir Ishmael explains many sacrifices he made, many of which were forced. Near the end he and Mohamed sacrifice their lives to get food for their family by going out to buy food while the rebel/army was shooting still. Like Ishmael said, it was a forced sacrifice because they needed the food to survive. Throughout the story Ishamel made countless sacrifices for the better and worse.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there have been any huge sacrifices I have made, just some little ones here and there such as not hanging out with friends to finish something or going to play video games instead of during homework; just little things like that. These are more or less the same sacrifices that Victor is talking about.
As victor explained, the story at the end basically explains that no matter what there will always be consequences, whether they are good or bad. I think Ishmael learns this lesson quite well throughout the memoir. He learns that sometimes you have to make choices between two things that both suck. He also learns very early that sometimes you have to go with it, and that choices are beyond you, its just the way it is. There is a good quote in the movie Gladiator that I think explains this very well:
ReplyDelete"Sometimes, I do what I want to, but the rest of the time I do what I have to."
Sacrifice is something we all must do. I am very familiar with Victor's example, and Nga made an amazing sacrifice by coming here to America. I have not had to make a huge amount of sacrifices like Nga, but I have made a few for a common goal. One of the things I enjoy more than anything is white-water kayaking. I used to do it everyday for 3 weeks over the summer, and I miss it like hell. But i had to give it up because Football is my main goal, and to accomplish it I have to work all the time, and kayaking was getting in the way. It is a sad thing, but it is for the better.
I don't think I could ever understand the sacrifices that Ishmael had to make. None of us will hopefully ever have to go through being forced into a war and fight against our own people. By being forced into their civil war, not only did he sacrifice time with the people he loves, but he had to sacrifice most of his adolesence. He lost his brother ad friends at one point and lost his parents for good. It's a horrible thing. I have made a few sacrifices in my life; big and small. Being the younger sibling just sucks. So, I always had to be the "baby" and sit back while my older sister got mostly anything she wanted. Also, when I first came to Oak Hall in 6th grade, I had to make new friends and make a huge adjustment! And recently, I've had to adjust to my parents being separated. So, I understand the point of sacrificing something for other things, but probably nothing like fighting in a war.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Annie, no one could ever fully understand what Ishmael went through because none of us were in that situation with him. I think the way he describes his situation in the book gives us a little insight on how hard it was, but no one could ever imagine or fully understand how hard it was for him.
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