They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

Wow I am really being productive this New Year! Two blogs in two weekends! I am good! I have taken a break from studying from my finals in order to deliver this lovely blog to you. For this blog, I decided to review "They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The true story of three Lost Boys from Sudan" by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein. I actually got this book last year when I was busy writing my survivor paper for English II. In the paper, I had to write about three survivors, from three different sources and what they had to use to survive. For one of my sources, I decided to use this book. I ended up reading only half of it because that was all I needed to write the paper. So this morning, I picked up this book and finished it, and then decided to review it before the Steelers-Ravens game. BLACK AND YELLOW LET'S GO! But anyways, here is my review of They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Benson and Alphonsion Deng and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein.

Characters: Benson: One of the Lost Boys of Sudan/from Dinka/is the oldest of the three narrators
Alepho: Another Lost Boy/he is the younger brother of Benson/is very sick throughout the entire novel
Benjamin: the final Lost Boy who narrates the novel/he is the cousin of Benson and Alepho/has a terrible injury in his leg where a splinter, the size of his hand,
entered his knee

The Plot: Benjamin, Alepho, and Benson each lived the life of the average African boy. They stayed with one of their father's wives, hunted animals, and worked towards becoming a man. In Sudan, that was their life, and that was all they grew to expect. Little did they know that they would become men much sooner than they thought. All that changes when the Murahiliin, a group that is a part of the Second Sudanese War, attack their village. Forced to flee for their lives, Benjamin and Benson run into the African deserts at the ages of five and nine. Seven year old Alepho flees shortly after. What started as a journey to reunite with their family, this novel follows the lives of three incredibly young narrators as they face starvation, dehydration, murder, war, genocide and torture at every turn. Traveling thousands of miles in the hopes of reuniting with one another, the question on all three of these boys' minds is: will we ever be safe again?

What I liked: Oh my God. Words cannot even describe what these boys went through. For me, this was very difficult to read. This world that I had a privilege of reading about was so very unlike my own that it was almost disconcerting. Alpheo, Benjamin, and Benson lived in a world of poverty even before war descended on their village. This took place in the late '80s and the early '90s, yet these boys had fathers who had multiple wives, lived without water or even brick and mortar houses. They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky (from now on I'm writing this as TPF) offered a personal account of life in Africa for the majority of the population. While Sudan is definitely more war-torn than other nations in Africa, the conditions don't vary drastically from nation to nation. There is one, very disgusting part at the beginning of the book which I won't talk about here but let's just say it puts into perspective how little education people receive in these countries. Then the war begins, and Alepho, Benjamin and Benson are literally left to fend for themselves in the middle of Africa. They lose complete contact with each other multiple times, and they never see their parents again. They walk for thousands of miles, are tossed from refugee camp to refugee camp avoiding soldiers from both waring groups which will enslave them, force them to work in the military, or kill them. Each battles sickness, injury, violence, and the constant pain that comes without having food or water for weeks at a time. The survival skills these boys employ and their desire to live was striking. However, the most powerful survival skill of all, was hope. Faced with impossible conditions, each retained the hope that they would find their family again. Alepho, Benjamin, and Benson were all under ten years of age when these events started but the events are presented as clear as if they occurred yesterday. This book was so well written and presented through the simple eyes of three children, you had a clear visual of the awful world they were forced to live in. I think the hardest part of the book for me was reading about the conditions in the refugee camps. Children were literally starving, fighting for water, women and girls were raped if they gathered fire wood after hours and the UN wasn't properly managing food, supplies, or medicine. Lice and diarrhea ran rampant and you were lucky if those were the only diseases you caught. Nothing was being done. It makes you question why we do the things we do. I am referring here to government. We sometimes get so caught up in our own lives and interests that we lose sight of the plights of others. I don't want to be that kind of person, and this book has made me realize that sometimes you need to look beyond what you need. I felt an almost unreasonable anger when I read this book. I wanted to know why the United States didn't do more. Throughout this book, the Lost Boys talk about the U.S. and how great it is, and when we send any help it is considered amazing and great. However, as a reader, you become painfully aware of how little we really did. These boys, all of Sudan, and all of the poor suppressed look to the U.S. as a symbol of hope and I think we as a nation lose sight of that sometimes. We allow our fear, and the size of a problem sometimes deter us from what truly matters. People would probably tell me that it is far more complicated than I can understand because I am just a high school girl, and that the affairs of government are more complex than I can comprehend. Maybe so. Maybe that is why I question why we involved ourselves so completely in a War with Iraq when there was already one starting in Sudan. Yes, I know we thought they had nuclear weapons and I know that their dictator was crazy, but why can't we focus on helping the people of Sudan? Why can't we focus on fixing wars instead of starting them? Why can't we try to help the Alephos and the Benjamins and the Bensons of this world. Perhaps it is naive to think that we can fix their problems. But I live here, and I was brought up to believe that the U.S. is the home of the brave and that we are great because we are American. And throughout the whole book, I got this feeling that maybe we had lost sight of that. We have lost sight of the fact that we have been, welcome or not, given this right of being a protector, and it is time we become that type of leader these people need us to be.

What I didn't like: Occasionally, I lost track of the book because it switches narrators so often. But that would be it.

Overall: 9 out of 10, not perfect because of the narrator switching issue. I am so, so lucky to live in the place I do, with the people I do, in the land I do. Americans and I should never lose sight of the fact that we are privileged beyond belief, and we should help those who are not as privileged as ourselves.

The Kite Runner

Happy New Year everyone! Well seeing as I finished my homework a little early today (weird right?) I decided to write on my blog before I worked on my brief for the Youth and Government Conference. So much nerdiness, so little time. But anyways, I decided to review a book that I read a few years ago which a few of you might have heard of, called "The Kite Runner." That was an understatement, a rhetorical technique which I just did an assignment on! I guess Mr. Aldridge was right, I do use rhetorical strategies during my daily life. The Kite Runner is an International Bestselling book and is critically acclaimed. Unfortunately, I read this book years ago, so my memories are a little fuzzy. Bear with me though as we bulldoze through this and so without further ado I shall review The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini.

Characters: Amir: lives with his father in Afghanistan/leaves Afghanistan to live in California/loves to fly kites
Hassan: servant to Amir's father/Amir's best friend/loves to run after the flown kites
Assef: the most hated boy in Amir and Hassan's neighborhood/rapes Hassan/joins the Taliban after they rise to power
Baba: Amir's father/a man of prominence who is forced to move to California/is forced to work low paying jobs and dies of cancer
Rahim Kahn: Baba's business partner/the man Amir considers to be a father/convinces Amir "to make things right"
Sohrab: son of Hassan/is captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan/is desperately trying to survive

The Plot: Amir and Hassan were best friends despite their differences. Amir was cowardly, Hassan was strong. Amir was good at flying kites, Hassan was good at chasing after them. Amir was a Pashtun boy while Hassan was a Hazara, the shunned ethnic minority. Amir could read while Hassan could not. The boys watched movies together and were always supposed to be best friends. Until one night after a kite runner competition, something happens to Hassan, something too terrible to even be acknowledged by Hassan. But Amir saw what happened and said nothing, and did not try and stop Assef from hurting Hassan. He was too afraid. Eaten up by guilt, Amir frames Hassan for stealing to force him to leave his father's employment so Amir will never have to see Hassan again. But when the Soviet Union takes over Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee first to Pakistan, then to California. There, the two men make their lives in a new world. But Amir cannot escape Hassan and almost twenty years later, Amir gets what he has been waiting his whole life for: a chance to make amends.

What I liked/What I didn't like: I am going to do the same thing here as I did for Catch 22 where I combine all of my thoughts into one big section just because it was so long ago that I read it, it helps to let it flow all out at once. First off, let me just say that I don't usually cry in books. I have certainly felt sad while reading the book and I have certainly empathized with the characters but I don't usually cry. I cried twice while reading this book. Three if you count the end which was more of a happy tears welling up in eyes. The first was when Hassan gets raped by Assef, Amir does nothing and Hassan carries on even though both he and Amir know what happened. The fact that those events could happen to someone, was completely heart-wrenching, and that Amir did nothing was too much to stomach. The second time I cried was when Sohrab stops speaking to Amir (for reasons which become clear if you read the book). The third and final time, which was a happy welling up of tears is when Amir and Sohrab have a moment of understanding. This book was powerful for so many reasons. Not only did it portray a time that was horrendous, frightening, and terrifying, it gave you characters that were full of light and darkness. Look at the narrator, Amir. Amir was loved by his father, but it was tough love. He was immature, selfish and inconsiderate and that is why he failed Hassan when he needed him most. I hated Amir for doing this to Hassan, the constant taking him for granted and not telling his father when Hassan gets raped by Assef. In Amir's quest to save Hassan's son Sohrab, Amir finally is, in a sense, able to repent for his sins. This book was about life coming full circle and how you never really leave your past behind and while I think Amir's life has come full circle, saving Sohrab didn't really save Hassan, rather it lessened Amir's guilt. I believe though that Hassan would have gladly traded his life for being saved than let his son's life be spent in a living hell. That may not make any sense but I guess I think that Amir is still repenting, and still should repent for the great injustice he caused Hassan. But, wow this was a great story. The writing was beautiful and I learned more about Afghanistan culture than I ever had before. This book gave me a window into a time and place that made me glad I live where I live with the people I do. But even through all the darkness present in this book, there was an underlying sense of love for a country, and for the common people who lived there regardless of the leaders. That was truly magical. I loved the ending as well. I feel like any other way than how Khaled Hosseini ended it would have ruined the book. I am not going to tell you the ending because I want you to read it for yourself. When I read this book, I hadn't really expanded my literary horizons. I have read a lot of fiction, which is fine, but didn't really, for the most part, challenge me or give me a true literary experience. The Kite Runner expanded my literary horizons and because of this book I am still expanding them today. Because now, I want to read another book as rich as this and generic fiction just won't do, and it won't satisfy me. I am looking for more books like this one.

Overall: 10 out of 10. Thank you Khaled Hosseini for waking me up.