Character Analysis: A Long Way Gone
Imagine your home being burnt before your eyes, your family unjustly slaughtered, witnessing innocent people shot without reason, imagine being behind the trigger. Experiencing traumatic events such as these will negatively affect anyone’s character. Ishmael Beah, a child in Sierra Leone, experienced just that. In A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah uses his life story do demonstrate how childhood and innocence are not synonymous. Many believe that youth somehow gives an unlimited supply of innocence, but Ishmael’s story argues otherwise. This is because after experiencing a traumatizing environment, his character has changed, from an innocent boy to a violent soldier. Ishmael and his friends are running from the rebels. They are just one step ahead of them, yet in the midst of a situation he realizes that, “The sky was at its bluest..My eyes widened, a smile forming on my face. Even in the middle of the madness there remained a true and natural beauty, and it took my mind away from my current situation.”(Beah 59) Ishmael manages to take his mind off of what he is experiencing and focus on the natural beauty around him. This shows the magnitude of Ishmael’s innocence before becoming involved as a soldier. Ishmael is at the army’s current base and is reflecting on his feelings about the enemy. He angrily thinks how, “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could.”(Beah 122) The pain and sadness Ishmael first felt after losing his family has morphed into uncontrollable anger after becoming a soldier. He …show more content…
Ishmael’s description of his three years as a soldier proves that every human is capable of committing horrible acts. Anyone who does so will eventually change the basis of their character and
Compare And Contrast A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
503 Words | 3 PagesIshmael became a victim of the war the moment he became a boy soldier. He was only a young teen at the time, where substances took over his life, as he states, “In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square,
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
867 Words | 4 PagesBy sharing his own experiences, Beah is able to show his audience the consequences of war with an incredibly impactful way; one that can only be delivered through personal experience. One example of this is when Ishmael talks about slitting a man’s throat, during his time as a soldier: “His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out. His eyes rolled up and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightened glance, as if caught by surprise” (Beah 125). This passage shows how brainwashing has affected the life of Ishmael, as it did to hundreds of child soldiers, and how ruthlessness became a part of their lifestyle. In America, the average fifteen year old’s biggest problems are grades or school work, but in these areas of war and devastation, childhoods are being ripped away and kids have to worry about killing and
Ishmael's Loss In 'A Long Way Gone'
1077 Words | 5 PagesHe was so close to finally seeing them again that when he lost that opportunity, it was like losing them all over again. This impacted him emotionally. Losing his family again made him angry and sad at the same time. He is filled with frustration and anger, and he later took his frustration out on Gasemu with violence. Ishmael lost many things during the war, the most impactful on his path was his family being lost.
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
1585 Words | 7 PagesWhen he was twelve, Beah was separated from his family when the rebels attacked his village. Beah’s journey to escape the rebel forces led him through areas where he witnessed the horrors of war and it led him to war as a child soldier. Life as a child soldier left a deep impact on Ishmael Beah. Although, he recovered physically and mentally as children often do, Beah’s writing shows his difficulty in expressing his emotions.
Ishmael Beah Fair Age Quotes
1289 Words | 6 PagesA fair age to become a soldier In a long way gone written by Ishmael Beah he’s a child soldier and he faces many challenges along the way.
Examples Of War In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
816 Words | 4 PagesWar is a terrifying occurrence to be a part of but for most people, it is not part of their daily lives, and only know of it from history books and movies; But in Some countries, war is a part of people's daily lives. In his nonfiction memoir, Ishmael Beah develops his purpose to educate people on how war is not as cool as it seems through the use of being numb to emotion and drugs. Numbness to emotion is prominent in the novel. Ishmael has become a child soldier for the government and is now getting ready to kill a prisoner they captured. Ishmael writes, “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and [he] [grabs] the man's head and slit his throat…” “...
The Significance Of My Creative Title A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
1212 Words | 5 PagesThe war to Ishmael was simply an issue extraneous to him and far away from his home. He sees people coming from his village were escaping from the rebels leaves his home village, Mataru Jang and for the first time, he gets a shock from a man covered with his son’s blood and a woman who carrying her dead baby on her back. He does not know if his family is alive or dead. He was a boy who never had been through the unexpected situation without learning how to weather the situation. All he could do was “listen[ing] to rap music, trying to memorize the lyrics” (Beah 15) to avoid thinking about the situation at hand.
A Long Way Gone Analysis
1110 Words | 5 PagesIshmael has a flashback of his life in the war. In his dream he encounters a body wrapped in white bed sheets, and as he unwraps it he realizes it is his own face he is looking at. He then awakens, sweating and on the ground. He says, “I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories” (Beah 19). Even being in a different country cannot take away the hell that Ishmael has been through.
A Long Way Gone Literary Analysis Essay
672 Words | 3 PagesThe human condition is full of paradoxes and double meanings. We can commit the most shocking and terrible acts, but we can complete the most virtuous and honorable feats. Ishmael Beah describes the appalling and violent behavior he and other children exhibited toward the human life during his time in the Sierra Leonean civil war in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. Beah also details the forgiveness and kindness of complete strangers that helped him become the man that fate meant him to be. Homo sapiens are complex creatures brimming with irony and surprises.
A Long Way Gone Theme Essay
946 Words | 4 Pages(1991-2002) Ishmael’s story solely focused on the years he was affected by the war. (1992-1997) The tale begins when with Beah, his brother, and a couple of his friends, heading to another village to put on a performance and while away, they catch wind that their village had been attacked by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). The boys' having no home to go back to, wander from village to village looking for shelter and safety.
A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah Character Analysis
657 Words | 3 PagesIn 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
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael
875 Words | 4 PagesIn 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
A Long Way Gone Rhetorical Analysis Essay
884 Words | 4 PagesAlso, rhetorical devices were not incorporated lightly. On page 108, Ishmael said, “[h]e smiled at us, lifted his gun, and fired several rounds toward the sky. We dropped to the ground, and he laughed at us as he went back inside.” Irony became common in this book when the war broke out. Lives were turned around, and people were not being themselves; Ishmael, at the age of twelve, became addicted to cocaine, marijuana, and brown-brown (a mix of cocaine and gunpowder).
A Long Way Gone Conflict Analysis
1572 Words | 7 PagesAt the age of 13 till the age of 16 the author, Ishmael Beah, pulls himself through many terrible conflicts in Sierra Leone. The author uses conflict to show his readers the realism of his story. By using conflict in many different ways, it allows readers to gain an understanding of how Ishmael struggles changed his life for worse and for better. By using person vs person, person vs society, person vs self, and person vs nature conflict the author is opening doors allowing readers to get a full understanding of Ishmael 's challenges of a life in war. The most commonly seen conflict in ‘A Long Way Gone’ is person vs society.
Reflection On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
498 Words | 2 PagesAdditional Activity 1 In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the reader can gather certain information about the story he told. The point of view of his story truly affects the reader’s understanding. Also, Beah included details that defined his experience and changed his life. He also wrote his memoir with an emotion that drove the story.
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Compare And Contrast A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
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