Narrative strategies to structure stories

Essay 2– TWO DIFFERENT BOOKS: A Long Way Gone and Bamboo People Topic: Beah and Perkins use different narrative strategies to structure their stories. Beah has a single narrator; Perkins uses two narrators–one from each side of the conflict who are brought together by the war. What is gained and what is lost by each of the strategies? Is one strategy more effective than the other? (2-4 pages) This essay is a rough draft so you do not need to perfect the essay just get the ideas and thoughts out on paper and try to make it look as good as you can but it is not a final copy. So I will be charging less than normal because it is just a rough draft. Possible points of departure:

1. Beah’s story covers a longer time frame–potentially 3 years of combat and ending then when he has been adopted by an American mother and is in school. Obviously he cannot (and does not) tell us everything that happened. The narrative is selective in the events that are related. Beah also moves at times back and forth between the three worlds–his dreams the experiences of his new life the memories that are triggered when he is living his new life. Occasionally at least we as readers have to sort these out–he does not use a different type font or spacing to separate out the three types of experiences. Does that strategy enhance the telling of the story? Does it make it more interesting? Harder to read? Why might he use such a structure?

2. Perkins uses two narrators roughly dividing the book in half. The first half is the story of Chiko who is kidnaped/impressed into the Burmese army and sent off to war. The second half is the story of Tu Reh a Karenni boy who is defending his people from the Burmese army. The two come together after Chiko is seriously injured by a land mine. Against his instincts Tu Reh brings Chiko to a village where he is treated medically. Chiko is restored to his family. Both boys struggle with what is the “right” thing to do–right by their people and family right by the large moral issues that the conflict raises.

3. Do both writers seem to have similar goals in writing the novels? If so what are they? If not how do they differ? Can you define what each writer’s goal might have been? Does that goal or intention explain anything about the narrative structure of the novels. You need to understand both of these novels -Study Pack for Ishmael Beal’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier [Sierra Leone] and Mitali Perkins Bamboo People here are the study packs for each of the novels that you will need to incorporate into the essay there are also 3 points that you can choose from that I have listed above.Study Pack for Ishmael Beal’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier [Sierra Leone]*

1. Map of Sierra Leone 2. Overview of the conflict (“Chronology” pp. 219-26 in the text)+ 3. Series of videos on YouTube a. “The Drugged-Up Child Soldiers at The Centre of Sierra Leones War” (26.12 min) b. Interview: “Ishmael Beah — Child Soldier” (9:45 min) c. “Ishmael Beah: Stories As Medicine” (13:02 min)*

4. A Long Way Gone: Structure of the Novel+5. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/y… (WHO document)What is the impact of violence drugs and peer pressure on American male teenagers? Study Pack for Mitali Perkins Bamboo People [Myanmar formerly Burma]*

1. Maps of Myanmar and Burma+

2. Rambo (Film 2008). Fictionally set in Burma (actually filmed in the Canary Islands)Rambo and the Karen people (as in the novel) do battle with the Burmese Army. Not a great movie and I’m not sure where you can find a copy to view but remembering that the boy soldiers loved these Rambo films you might justify watching this as a learning experience.*

3. Summary of Rambo (2008) as taken from Wikipedia.*

4. Overview of the conflict described as one of the worlds “longest running civil war.”+

5. YouTube: “Myanmars forgotten war” (14 min) If you dont need the study pack that is fine just make sure you understand both novels for the essay.