A Long Way Gone and Sizwe's Test - Assignment Example

?Argumentative structure in A Long way gone and Sizwe’s Test – A comparative study A long way gone and Sizwe’s Test are comparatively recent works inEnglish literature that stand out for the amazing true account of the protagonists that they narrate and the significant social issues that they deal with. Both the stories take us to Africa, to war ravaged Sierra Leone in one book and a degenerate South African slum in the other. Both have been international successes, attracting significant attention in the press and reaping commercial benefits to the author and the cause. More importantly each of them have revealed an as yet undiscovered face to the causes that they explore – adding significantly to our understanding of them and their potency. The purpose of this paper is to discern the argumentative structure in either narration and to provide a comparative study based on specific examples from either. Very often, such a study in itself can be very fruitful towards understanding the works better as a pivotal change in narration, a particular emphasis on a style of argument that permeates a given work, or certain paragraph that stand out clearly in it’s narration as opposed to the rest of the text, add significantly to the depth of the work and subconsciously affects the reader’s enjoyment adding or subtracting from it as the case maybe. Before we proceed to the core of our discussion, it would be advisable to consider both works separately and understand the gist of their argument, as this would be important for understanding why a particular work has adopted a particular point of narration. A Long way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, written by Ishmael Beah, published in 2007, is an autobiographical account of the plight of boy soldiers in world’s conflicts and in particular tell this story from the war ravaged Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah is one of the boy soldiers who separated from his family, is taken into a boy war unit where he experiences violence and torture of unimaginable crudeness. His specialty was executing prisoners of war – something that you should give the reader an idea of the type of experiences that he may have had in the battlefield. Sadly, he wasn’t an exception, but rather he was one of the very few who found redemption and salvaged the rest of his life through the blissful intervention of UNICEF and a few other good Samaritans. He presents his story in front of the United Nations where he meets many other people like him and story carries him to the United States where he begins a new life 2. The story tells the hardship of the life of boy soldiers, children who anywhere else in the world are still in the innocence of their childhood and hands that carry books haven’t yet the crassness of a knife. Sierra Leone opens before us in wonderful detail, with the layers of it’s social interaction being visible in greater strides finally dissolving into a medley of social interactions that we all can identify and relate to. Sizwe’s Test by Jonny Steinberg, published in 2008, tells the story of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. No other country perhaps has been at the peril of this scourge as perhaps South Africa where one in eight men are HIV positive1. Steinberg is puzzled that despite this, most people do not get tested for HIV, nor do they adopt widespread safe sex practices. His story tells us the complex socio – economic realities in the suburban slum of Lusikisiki, thorugh the eyes of Sizwe – a local shop owner 3. The story begins and then proceeds at a casual tone of narration, getting the reader to the characters and the environment in which they live. Then they reveal in wider and ever expanding circles the layers of this semi-urban community and finally tells us why the people are so stigmatized about HIV. Sizwe has had unprotected sex with many women and is at great risk himself, but he refuses to get tested. He becomes the window through which Steinberg narrates the tale of Lusikisiki. The absolute lack of privacy, the fear of being shown as vulnerable, the superstitious stigma attached with AIDS, general ignorance and illiteracy – all are shown to major factors that impede the restraining of HIV within the community. Towards the end Steinberg adds his own narration that forms a fitting end to this magnificent story. The book doesn’t leave with an exaltation or euphoria but begs larger questions – especially ones that have to do with the future of this community that we have begun to love. But here, the reader is as clueless as the author. Sizwe’s Test begins with a casual style of narration. This is very appropriate – the audience for the most part is largely new to the reality of a slum and any greater pace of narration would impede proper understanding of the text. The first half of the book is easily a narrative account that draws on the day to account of the members of the community. This after all, is a description of their lives, and that by definition is narrative. Towards the end however, when Steinberg describes his own story, the account becomes more dramatic and remissive. A Long way gone however alternates between different styles of narration through it’s text. The parts of the book that recount the story of the vagabonds through the forest and their activities at various villages is narrative. The part in the United States and in the United Nations has a few sections that are descriptive and adds an element of definition to the text. This is very appropriate as the pace of narration distinctly slows down in these chapters and the reader benefits from the richness of description that is offered. However, it may have benefitted the narration better if other parts of the text has been more descriptive – the average reader is keen to form a mental impression about Sierra Leone and it’s culture. Both the works adopt styles that suit their story, as is visible by the adulation accorded to both by the public. 1 Death March Adam Hoschfield New York Times, Feb 10 2008 2 A long way Gone: Memoirs of a boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 3 Sizwe’s Test, Jonny Steinberg, Simon & Schuster 2008 Read More