Journal Four: Trent Swisher

The reading is going fairly well for me. I enjoy both books more than I thought I would. Some strengths of Beah that are clearly evident to me is his imagery and emotion that he puts into his writing. Whenever he describes how he's feeling, where they're at, or describing anything for that matter, I can almost vividly imagine where they're at and feel what they are feeling. I'm not a professional author so his strengths stand out to me the most and it's hard for me to realize any weaknesses. Same goes with Cisneros, very good at imagery and emotion but it's hard for me to point out a weakness. I prefer A Long Way Gone simply because it's something I'm more interested in. I love memoirs, especially if it's from a person with a very unique story to tell, and I think Beah has a very interesting story.

Beah has been alone and lost quite a bit throughout his journey so far. It started out going almost a week without human contact to a whole month at only twelve or thirteen years old. This time he was alone for roughly a month in a forest. You start to get a better idea at how lonely Beah began to feel and it only makes sense for him to feel how he did. Beah writes "one thing about being lonesome is that you think too much, especially when there isn't much else you can do" (Beah 52). All he could do was to be isolated in his thoughts because he was already isolated in reality.