"The man who knows when not to act is wise. To my mind, bravery is forethought."

Euripides once said, "the man who knows when not to act is wise. To my mind, bravery is forethought." While this quote can be applied to many walks of life, it has a strong correlation to the memoir, A Long Way Gone. The rebels, also known as the RUF(Revolutionary United Front) began entering villages and essentially taking people hostage. They knew that the government they were battling could not risk killing all its people in the villages by sending their troops in. For this reason the rebels needed the villagers and when the villagers began running away out of sheer fear, the rebels began slaughtering the people whom they were "fighting for." To provide an example of the atrocities committed by the rebels for those unfamiliar with the memoir, I would like to bring your attention to a quote that merely scratches the surface of these atrocities. "They had carved their initials on his body with a hot bayonet and chopped off all his fingers with the exception of his thumbs."(Beah 21) This was done to a man who was still alive and he was sent to be a "messenger" to the other villages. To us this is unfathomable, but in Liberia, Ishmael saw this on a regular basis and was constantly running for his life.
On one occasion, Ishmael and his friends were caught by a few rebels and he recalls, "as we approached the village, two rebels ran ahead. Six of us and one rebel, I thought to myself. But he had a semiautomatic machine gun and a long belt of bullets wrapped around him."(Beah 32) Ishmael had contemplated attacking the rebel with his five friends, however in not doing so he probably saved their lives. The rebel was walking directly behind them with the gun pointed at their heads and certainly would have pulled the trigger if one of the boys moved erratically. Ishmael knew when not to act and saved several lives. Another excellent example of this forethought bravery and wisdom could be located when a tribe caught the boys hiding out inside of a shack. Twelve of them (tribesmen) ran after seven of us, wrestling us to the sand. They tied our hands."(Beah 65) Ishmael allowed the pursuing villagers to catch him, realizing the situation would be exacerbated by a violent struggle. Once tied, the boys and Ishmael were returned to the village to face the chief. The chief then said, " 'you children have become little devils, but you came to the wrong village... Well this is the end of the road for devils like you. Out there in the ocean even you rascals cannot survive.' "(Beah 66) It is essential to understand that young boys were recruited for the rebel cause and feared because of this. It is because of this, the villagers wanted to kill the boys; they were concerned with their village's safety. Before the boys were to be led off to their deaths in the ocean, a hip hop tape fell out of Ishmael's pockets. The chief picked up this unknown form of music and asked Ishmael what it was all about. By keeping calm and respectfully explaining and dancing the music, Ishmael persuaded the chief who reversed the death sentence, realizing these boys were not violent rebels but mere children. The lack of struggle and composed behavior presented by Ishmael once again saved the lives of several people. His foresight allowed him to make brave, wise choices even in the face of death.

Is Oskar a naive child or an enlightened genius?

When I initially began to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I was unsure about Oskar. I could not decipher whether this child had some type of extremely overactive imagination or deficiency. Constantly through the novel I questioned this notion and sat on the fence on whether Oskar was a genius or simply a naive, uncommon child. My questioning stemmed from the first few pages of the novel. Oskar thinks, "what about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them and played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls?"( Foer 1) Yet, just a few sentences later, Oskar wonders what "if everone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about..."(Foer 1) Do you understand where my dilemma stems from now? Knowing about women's menstrual periods is uncommon knowledge for 13 year old boys, let alone a 9 year old boy. However the whole notion of swallowing microphones to listen to heartbeats seems utterly absurd. Continually through the novel I began to further believe in the fact of young Oskar's genius. This belief was solidified by many of Oskar's comments such as, " 'Richard Buckminster Fuller was a scientist, philosopher, and inventor who is most famous for designing the geodesic dome, whose most famous version is the Buckyball. He died in 1983, I think. ' " (Foer 190) I am clueless as to where he acquires such trivial knowledge (to us) at age 9 and why he is at all interested in such topics. Another particular incident which validates this fact further could be found on page 51. Oskar writes a letter to Cher Marcel, his French teacher explaining how he will no longer be needing the language lessons. It is written partly in French and displays a very cunning mind at work. This level of wiliness is uncommon, especially in a 9 year old. Oskar possesses a very developed mind, far beyond his years, which I believe to be to his detriment. In his quest to learn more about his father and the secret key, Oskar reads extensively and acquires a great deal of knowledge, particularly about human tragedy. This helps him deal with his father's death by associating with other victims' pain who experienced tragedy, like the Dresden bombings and bombing at Hiroshima. Through all his readings and the tragedy of 9/11 Oskar has lost much of his innocence and the naivety normal children have. However in this time, Oskar has grown incredibly knowledgeable and is certainly morphed into a genius for his age.