Johnny Mad Dog

I think this book should have been named Laokole instead, her story was far more impressive. But anyways, I enjoyed this book although it was crude and sad at times. There wer some parts throughout the story that stuck out and were meant to be studied. The first is on page 195,

"In history class, I'd learned taht in medieval times the Africans of the city Great Zinbabwe had built high walls of enormous stone blocks around the town's center, as protection against local invaders and Arab conquerors from the East. Similarly, the rulers of China had constructed a wall several hundred kilometers long, to defend themselves against the barbarians who roamed the border regions of their empire. Now we were the ones who were facing a wall. Were we the new barbarians, assailing the fortresses erected by the world's current rulers?"

Lao was very intelligent because she went to school and also had a need for learning. She liked knowing and figuring things out. She often had these momentary intellectual thoughts that got my mind thinking too. She was right, they were building walls to keep them out and if you compare that to history they could be mistaken as barbarrians. Later this confirmed her theory, the white people thought of Africans as barbaric and not able to control themselves or organize themselves. They thought they were horrible people that only wanted to kill each other and anyone else who got in their way.

"How is it possible that I could recollect in a minute detail all the scenes of cruelty I'd witnessed, even from afar, yet remember so little about a generous act that had such immense significance for me? Does this mean that evil leaves a deeper impression on our memory than good?"(136)

This is my favorite thought from the mind of Lao. Its so true even today. The media, friends and family recall and share stories about hard times, death, suffering etc. Rarely do we see news on TV about a beautiful marriage between celebrities rather than and dirty divorce filled with adultery and slander. Our friends and family call more often to tell us the latest gossip about their friends bad doings over the weekend rather than to comment on the beauty of the day and their latest happy story. Lao has a point, we as humans tend to remember more about the hard times and horrible evil in the world rather than the good in it.

"How was it that despite the cruelty humans were capable of, there weres still people who sacrificed themselves for others? To put this another way: given all the evil that human beings strive so hard to perpetrate, the good ought to have been driven out of existence. Yet it exists. Why? Who knows!" (157)

This quote ties in with the previous one. Lao is watching all this horrible destruction going on around her, yet there are still people who are giving themselves to help others. The doctors, the mystery man who wheelbarrowed her mother to safety, Tanisha, Katelinjne, Birgit.. They all helped Lao escape from the massacre occuring around her. I like to think that people like this are everywhere, just waiting for the right moment to emerge and help. Yes there is a lot of evil in the world, but don't forget the people like Tanisha!

There are many other places throughout the book that have significant meaning to the world and the story, but I'll save them for class. One more point I want to make is to how the author really made a point that although all this turmoil was going on, people in Africa were still living out their daily lives. He made a distinct point to show Lao's womanly problems emerging during this massacre, Johnny's fight to fit in and be the alpha dog and Lao's mother to still remain a mother although she was almost immobile.

This story showed so much strength and perseverence by the African people, its really inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyLHGlUN9rM