A Long Way Gone Shame BEA was an Innocent boy who enjoyed playing football, swimming in the streams, and even started a rap and dance group with his friends and older brother. The group discovered their love for rap music from old cassette tapes of O. P. P, Run D. M. C, and the Sugarbird Gang. Shame and Junior, along with their other friends cherished these few hip hop and rap cassette tapes. Shame constantly carried these couple tapes on him at all times. They choreographed dance routines and memorized all of the lyrics. The boys also entered a talent show In a close town.
Shame, Junior, Tallow, and Mohamed have been singing and dancing to rap music since they first formed the group when Shame was only eight years old. They learned of rap during a visit to Mobile, where their fathers worked for an American company. They were transfixed by the music and returned to Mobile as often as they could to watch rap on their big television. Shame was shocked mostly because the black men could speak English so well and so quickly to the beat (Lisa). Shame and his group were inspired by the rap music. Music represented Seamless transformation Into the modern world.
The entire group Is mesmeric by rap musicians. Music became a way to escape reality of the war, express themselves by writing lyrics, and it eventually saves their lives. Shame and the boys all worked together as a group to create music. They also started changing the way they would dress, act, and speak to be like these musicians. Shame and his friends were Just like any ordinary innocent group of young boys wanting to be like famous musicians. This Is why many readers of the book are attracted to Seamless character, because he is very relatable. Shame, Junior.
Tallow, and Mohamed remind me of myself when I was their age (Essen). I would gather my neighborhood friends and pretend we were each a different member of Destiny’s Child. Just like Seamless group of friends, we would play dress up to look like them, attempt to memorize their dances, and mimic exactly how Destiny Child would act. My friends and I even had battles against my older brother and his group of friends who literally thought they were the real members of the boy band, NCSC. This goes to show exactly how young and innocent Shame and his friends really were. Throughout the book, A Long way
Gone, rap music plays an extremely important role in saving Seamless life. While the boys are traveling one day, a group of large, muscular men Jump out from the bushes, holding up their machetes and hunting rifles. These men are the voluntary guards of the village and were ordered by their chief to bring Shame and his friends back to the village. They are Immediately tied up In the village and questioned. Even though the boys continue to Insist they are not rebel soldiers, the chief does not believe them. The chief would not believe the boys until they discovered a rap cassette tape in Seamless pocket.
The chief forces Shame to explain the rap music. Shame was instructed to sing and dance to “O. P. P” by Naughty by Nature and “l Need Love” by AL Cool J. The chief is still cautious of the boys until a young boy from the village admits to knowing Shame and his friends. The boys are untied and the village surprisingly feeds them and even offers them a place to stay. Knowing that Shame should have been happy that the boy saved his life, but he could not be happy because he believed that happiness was fragile. The other boys tried to cheer
Shame up by playing Bob Marbles “Three Little Birds” and singing him the lyrics “don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing is goanna be all right” (Lisa). Seamless first breakthrough in rehabilitation at the Benign House was when his nurse, Esther, buys him rap cassette tapes and a cassette player. He was upset about it at first, but once the music hit his ears, Shame started opening up talking about his past for the first time to Esther. He talked about when he was shot in the foot during battle and needed the bullets surgically removed without anesthesia.
He explains how he was given cocaine after fainting from the pain and how he also had to kill the men who shot him. Esther was crying sympathetically and comforts him (Nassau). Every time that Esther uses music in Seamless therapy, he is able to talk about his memories. Eventually, he starts looking forwarded to his therapy sessions with Esther. She encourages him to start writing music again and gives him a notepad. Shame does not trust anyone, because he is used to relying on himself to survive. This lack of trust in anyone is due to Shame being betrayed by the only arson that he did trust, the lieutenant.
When Esther tries to gain a friendship with Shame, he avoided it at first. Every time he thinks about memories of his childhood, he gets a headache from the war flashbacks. The only thing that seemed to help him gain a peaceful mind was the music. When Shame loses himself in the beat off song, he is avoiding thinking about the painful memories of war. It was the music that helped him heal and to open up about his past. Shame has another breakthrough when he actually trusts Esther for the first time.