A Long Way Gone is the accurate adventure of Ishmael Beah, who becomes a soldier during a horrifying war in Sierra Leone. When Ishmael was twelve years old, his village got attacked while he was out with his friends for a rap music competition. After the village got attacked, he lost contact with his brother, mother and father; but one of his brother stayed with for a while finding food and shelter. Ishmael goal was to survive throughout the war, so he turned himself into a totally new person. Later on in the memoir, they named Ishmael the “killing machine” because he was so into violence and killing. The bad group he was with brainwashed him about his family and loved ones. He became addicted to cocaine, marijuana and brown brown which give him courage to fight and kill people without knowing it is wrong. Ishmael stayed with this bad group for a while; but later on his lieutenant gives Ishmael to the UNICEF. …show more content…
The nurse try’s to get Ishmael off drugs and she dose succeed in the end because she won Ishmael heart by giving him cassettes. After a while in the rehabilitation center, his uncle “tommy” from Freetown takes him to his house and keeps him there. His cousins treated him like he is their brother; Near the end of the memoir, Ishmael get invited to New york city where they talk about child solider stories; There he meets Laura, who is a storyteller and he just falls in loves with her stories, that he calls her his
For this month’s SSR I read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The author is Ishmael Beah and the publisher is Sarah Crichton Books. The copyright date is 2007 and there are 218 pages in this book. The genre of non-fiction is autobiography.
A Long Way Gone, is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone and grew up during the civil war in Sierra Leone. In, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael tells the reader his experiences as a boy soldier and his experiences in rehabilitation in order to regain his humanity. The book begins with Ishmael answering questions to his high school friends, in New York, about his time in the war.
Ishmael Beah was born in the village of Mogbwemo in Sierra Leone in 1980. The Civil War in Sierra Leone displaced Ishmael and resulted in him becoming a child soldier for the Sierra Leonean Armed Forces. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier chronicles the physical and psychological horrors of war and Ishmael’s subsequent return to society. While visiting a neighboring village with his brother and a group of friends, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) pillaged Mogbwemo.
Upon first glance, the title of the book “A Long Way Gone” appears to apply to the physical distance Ishmael Beah has travelled from his home town of Mogwembo since the attack on his hometown. Upon further analysis, it more accurately describes the emotional distance he has travelled. From losing his family and friends, fighting in the war, getting involved with drugs, and becoming a human rights activist, Beah faced unimaginable circumstances. Throughout his journey, he lost his innocence, became involved in fighting and drugs, and finally developed into someone who rose above his circumstances to advocate for others in his place. Ishmael Beah was once an innocent child, who grew up in a relatively happy family.
In the memoir A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael undergoes an extreme maturity with the rapid overcome of the war as he is but a young child. At only 12 years old, Ishmael has experienced events that some people in this world will never have to experience in their lifetime. As the generals use vicious tactics
Ishmael also found himself in danger and never felt comfort or safety. Days at a time he would by running through the forest and slept in trees. There was a constant fear of death that surrounded him due to a lack of security and safety. During the time he spent in the war, he struggled to fulfill the most basic needs of human survival. Once he was admitted into the war he was able to receive these two things, as they provided food and shelter for him.
Gabe Tonucci 8/20/2015 “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past”(Beah 20). After a month of living in the relative safety of New York City, Ishmael Beah haunted by the events that he witnessed and took part in during the war. No one in New York could possibly understand what he had to go through, leaving all these thoughts trapped inside of his head. Not helping his situation is the fact that every night he tosses and turns from having nightmares we witnessed the RUF preform and the horrible things he did himself. He is a young man divided against himself, as his country had been divided against itself - in both cases, due to the rebels' violent actions.
After rehabilitation, Ishmael was to go out in society, but that’s when the war reach to the city; Ishmael said, “more armed men arrived, and they began firing and knocking people’s heads with the butts of their guns. The armed men began tossing tear gas. Civilians began to vomit on the sidewalks and bleed through their noses” (Beah 205). This brought Ishmael flashbacked his war memories, he knew exactly what happened, because he seen, and been through the massacres before. So when the war come to him again, he don’t want to be involved it.
Not experiencing war is a luxury many people unfortunately do not get; however, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, lives and survives the war, though not without heartache. With war there is always fear, death, and hell. Ishmael Beah proves war is hell through the killing of civilians, the distrust, and the after effects of the war. Ishmael proves war is hell through the killing of civilians. Many innocent bystanders of the war are forced out of their homes, made to run for their lives.
A Long Way Gone is nonfiction story and true story of a boy named Ishmael Beah who is also the author himself. It is about how he becomes a boy soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone. When he was 12 years old, his village was attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends; which at the time he and his friends thought was cool because it came from America. With the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander to all different villages to find food and shelter. They soon begin to struggle to survive, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never thought of doing, such as stealing food from children.
The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone. Beah uses the theme of family and love, along with the use of symbolism and other literary devices, to inform a larger audience of the issues that he and others had to face while trying to survive in a war zone. A Long Way Gone, an autobiographical memoir, written by Ishmael Beah, takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of their civil war.
In the book “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael has to overcome his fears and desperation especially when he ends up in villages that dislike little kids because of the assumption that they are rebel soldiers. Sometimes he comes face to face with death like the time when some of the villagers who were suffering the civil war, capture Ishmael and his new accompanied friends they were saying ”We told him we were students and this was a big misunderstanding. The crowds shouted, drown the rebels”(Beah 38). When the village guards found a rap cassette in Ishmael's pocket they played the music and it pleased the chief and so they were excused from execution and as a result they were offered to also stay in the village for how long they wanted. This part in the story paves a path from Ishmael to talk and although that was one of his major obstacles pertaining to his life he succeeded and faced adversity by pleading that they were not rebels but
Memories “Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose”(Arnold). In the book a long way gone a boy named Ishmael beah tells his story. In this novel Ishmael’s village is eventually raided and he becomes on his own. Through being on his own he thinks of the past and memories of a better life. These memories that he thinks of can hinder him and help him along the way through his journey.
In one night Ishmael went from being a happy little boy to a lonely boy who is running for his life. After becoming captured by the soldiers they forced him to fight in war. During the war Ishmael faced conflicts and had to make tough choices that would impact his life. Conflict theory states that society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition, and limited resources (Staff Investopedia, 2018). This theory applies to Ishmael Beah
Don’t call me Ishmael! Introduction Self-esteem and self-image is a common issue that our teenagers suffer from. ‘Don’t call me Ishmael’ written by Michael Gerard Baver is about a a boy named Ishmael Leseur. He has low self-esteem and low self-image, as Ishmael said on page ‘5’ “In fact, if brains were cars, prue would be a Rolls Royce while I would be a Goggomobil up on blocks with half it’s engine missing.”