The House On Mango Street, strengths in my opinion is how Cisneros describes things in the book with her creative metaphors. I also can appreciate how she uses good dialog. Also her strength is indirect dialog but at the same time its a weakness because it gets kind of confusing at times when you are reading some of the chapters.
I feel like A Long Way Gone has a lot of strengths when it comes to describing location, characters, and events. Beah really takes you back to where he was when he was a young teen and it causes your heart rate to go up with each intense event that he faces. So far the only weakness that I see is that Beah leaves you hanging sometimes and forces you to assume what happens instead of just telling you. For instance How did Saidu die?
I honestly can't pick which book is my favorite. I like reading the House On Mango Street because its a shorter chapter book for someone who has A.D.D and I also like learning Cisneros writing style. I like reading A Long Way Gone because I feel like its very descriptive and I like learning about different cultures and the history.
Part Two: One of the most important survival skill I have noticed while reading A Long Way Gone is Beah and his group do not spend a long period of time for grieving and being depressed about their situation. Despite their disadvantage and life circumstances they don't give up and they keep moving and looking for a safe place. In chapter eleven Beah writes "we all knew we could grieve only for a short while in order to continue staying alive" ( Beah 89).
Works Cited
Beah, Ismael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier. New York: Sarah Critchon,
2007. Print.
Yes, Beah uses suspense throughout the book and this leaves me being unable to put the book down. The House on Mango Street, is a little confusing to me as well. I have trouble reading any of it and find myself re-reading some paragraphs at times just to get the gist of what is being portrayed. Yet the titles make sense in Cisneros where in A long Way Gone you have your opinion and imagination to make up a logical Title. I like it...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that Beah sometimes just leaves you hanging. Sometimes I think to myself like should I keep going or try and guess what's going to happen or just put the book down for a bit, its some what frustrating. I think everyone can agree that the house on mango street is just a bounce house book, jumping around a lot. But as far as your second paragraph I couldn't imagine only having a few hours to cope with a death and just move on even though I knew I would have to. Its so sad):
ReplyDeleteI agreed about Beah being able to describe things well. It feels like you are in their position sometimes. It is such a descriptive book.
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