Immigration Project Reflection

Immigration Project Reflection
By Camille Stovall-Ceja
The literature circle book that I chose to read was, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. I was very happy that I was able to read this wonderful novel because I thought that Ishmael's story was one of the most interesting. I learned a lot from A Long Way Gone like many of the experiences that everyone has to struggle through during the many wars in Africa. It was an interesting story because at first I only had a vague idea of how horrible the war actually was but, after reading about it from someone who went through it, I now have a greater understanding. Something that I felt was missing from the process of the Literature Circle process would be meeting in person. I also liked commenting and writing the blogs online but I would also want to talk to my group for a few minutes about what we thought about the book every week.
I liked that we wrote the quotes, signification and responses on blogs but I think that speaking to one another for a few minutes would give us the chance to understand more what our group members were feeling about the book. I didn't have any problems while blogging because I always knew what to write because the novel I read was so filled with surprising and significant events. I think that another reason meeting in person for a few minutes would be good is because I did not understand some of the responses I received or what my group members were referring to. I think that the way that I interpreted the novel was well done because I almost always found uses of symbolism throughout it but my group members also helped me remember things that had happened earlier on in the book which helped me with my blog posts.
For the art component of the literature book process, I chose to make a painting that expressed my interpretation of the novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. I wanted to make this type of painting because I knew that the choice of my interpretation of the novel would allow me to show the many uses of symbolism in the book. I also wanted this choice because I felt that showing my interpretation would show how much I understood the concept of the novel. The connection between my painting and the actual novel would be easy to spot for people that had read the novel but it may not be easy for people to understand my painting if they have not read it. This is because they will most likely not understand all of the symbolism in my painting unless they have read the book.
Other than that, I feel like I did a really good job showing the depth behind the story and displaying Ishmael's message of how hard it was to get away from war and how much people still struggle with getting to safety. I like how my painting turned out because I thought out what I would paint very carefully and put my best effort into painting and showing my original idea. There are only a few things that I might have changed had I had the chance to redo my painting.
My interpretation of the novel shows a picture of the main character, Ishmael, climbing a tree that is rooted in Africa, while reaching for America. In Africa, there are two people that are trying to stop Ishmael from reaching freedom and safety. These two people symbolize the war that Ishmael has struggled to run from. The tree in Africa symbolizes death and symbolizes that Ishmael had to climb death to get to freedom. Within that tree I also tried to symbolize that Ishmael had been caught in death during his struggle for freedom with the tree having many branches. I also tried showing that Africa is metaphorically isolated from the rest of the world while its many wars rage on.
My painting is important to me because I tried to show the struggle that Ishmael had to go through to get away from war. I also wanted to show Ishmael's feelings of being so isolated from the rest of the world while in war. Ishmael being in the tree shows that he was also isolated after his brother died and he no longer was able to see the rest of his family when he was captured as a child soldier. I feel that my painting is important also because I wanted to show other people that Ishmael had to run away from war, symbolized by the two men, only to have to climb through and be engulfed in death while just trying to get to safety.
I think that my painting turned out well and it shows the messages that I was trying to portray. I think that my painting could have used more detail, but it more detail may have taken away from the original idea of the painting. I want people to see Ishmael's struggles to get to freedom when they look at my painting. I want them to also see that although he was a child soldier, and killed many people, he was still running from the war. I also want people to realize that even when he got away from war, he still had a tough time getting away from death to get to freedom.