First Impressions of non-fiction choice book

ENGLISH 12 JOURNAL ENTRY

"Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" – Alexandra Fuller

So far, in Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight", we're introduced to a family who has immigrated to Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) from Great Britain. The family describes the environment as intense and brutal. In spite of such hardships, the family moves here from Britain to escape, a working-class world. As described in the story, in England, there are no opportune chances to rise up the caste system and through higher social ranks. They believe moving to the African colonies would provide a greater chance for social economic hope and prosperity.



Quite honestly, I'm stunned that this family continues to live in a war-esque land of Rhodesia in the midst of political uprisings and hostile environments, rather than live in a more blue-collar lifestyle in Britain. Fuller makes traveling to her school in Zambia seem like a living hell and a painful ordeal in terms of lengthly commutes. The heavily armed guards at the border exhibit uneasy behavior that would make you think twice before re-approaching them. Reading the story, I cannot help but pity the family. Every night, they have to sleep armed and go to a lockdown mode for simple safety. The whole fact a war is on the horizon must have inflicted an unsettling feeling day-in and day-out.

One example would have to be when the family is crossing the border over into from Zambia, where they are "greeted" by a rather intimidating guard at the checkpoint gate. The guard, heavily, almost shoots the family, because the mother is incredibly out of attention and sickly, passing out on an occasional basis, which gives the Zambia-Rhodesia border patrol the impression that they were trying to (or attempting to) leave with a corpse out of Zambia and into Rhodesia. He order the family out of the vehicle and points his