Long Way Gone Myths

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A myth is a traditional story that considers the history of people explaining some type of event that typically involves mystical beings or events. In "A Long Way Gone” the author provided many myths and legends such as “wild pigs”, “bra spider”, omen of the crow, the name ceremonies and so many more. Each story has it's only purpose, but in all I believe the purpose of each myth or legend is to teach a lesson, or to tell a story of things good or bad. In chapter 10 we are introduced to the myth of the “Bra spider”in the book it states “Bra spider live in the village that was surrounded by many other Villages. At the end of the harvest season, all the villages had a feast in celebration of their successful Harvest[…] All the villages have open …show more content…

They boys find a crow, that they later eat. Some believe seeing a crow is a sign something bad is going happen. Some of the boys believe they shouldn't eat it based on the legends, while the other thought their luck couldn't get any more worse based on the conditions they were in,which was not true because as a result of eating the bird they almost lost their friend Saidu. In the novel it states “ one afternoon, while we were searching for food in the deserted village, a crow fell from the sky. It wasn't dead, but it was unable to fly. We knew this was unusual, but we needed food and anything at that point would do[...] sometimes night has a way of speaking to us, but we never listen. The night after we ate the bird was too dark. There was no stars in the sky, and as we walked, it seemed as the darkness was getting thicker[...] A we were about to set foot on the bridge, we heard footsteps on the other side, coming towards us[...] Kanei began whispering our names. When he called out Saidu’s name he didn't answer[...]”(Ishmael pg 81-81) this whole quote is about the Oman or legend of coming across a crow. The crow was a warning for the guys that they didn't pick up

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