Some people call them instincts, but others call them natural tendencies. When people are under pressure, what drives them to make the decisions they make? The novels Night by Elie Wiesel, and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah help demonstrate why people choose to do certain things. Hope for better circumstances and fear of what could possibly happen is what forces people to make the decisions they make.
“The saddest sight these days is the imagine of hundreds of children kidnapped and lured into being child soldiers from the age of eight”(Roger Moore).”A Long Way Gone”was written by Ishmael Beah and published in 2007. As horrible and terrifying the experience was for Ishmael Beah starting in Sierra Leone from a young age,he still had enough courage to publish his own memoir.As a kid Ishmael was a happy child that loved music and dance.While performing rap music with his friends away from home his village got attacked by the rebels.Without knowing if his family is alive or not he has to survive on his own going from village to village.He later is forced and brainwashed to become a soldier and under the influence of drugs he became a killing
In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Beah is an adolescent whose innocence is stripped away at the hands of war. At the age of 13, Beah is forced to fight in the war in order to survive, or give up his battle and die. As a result, Beah ultimately decides to join the war. The harsh violence that Beah is exposed to strips him of his innocence and leaves him helpless and alone with his mind keeping him awake at night trying to unsee the cruelness he has been exposed to. Beah utilizes flashbacks, symbolism, and nature motifs in order to address the loss of his innocence throughout the novel.
In the book, My Side of the Mountain, there are many conflicts in it. They include a boy who lives in the woods and survives on his own. One of the conflicts is about an old lady and strawberries. This conflict happens when Sam is making his bed. This conflict makes me think about how Sam handled the conflict, how I would have handled it, and how God would have handled 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.
“While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself,” says Douglas Horton, an academic leader. A Long Way Gone shows us a story of revenge when a young boy gets swept up in a war after his family is killed at only twelve years old. Ishmael Beah in the novel A Long Way Gone illustrates that revenge is never the answer when he joins the army out of spite, loses his humanity in the war and struggles to forgive himself after his journey.
I have recently read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, a well written story about his transformation from a young boy to a child soldier. He was taken when he was just a little boy, still enjoying his childhood and forced to fight and murder people. This isn’t the only transformation that I have seen when reading this amazing story. I see his transformation from a child to a soldier and a soldier to a civilized adult, something he struggles with a lot. In this essay, I will be telling you about the transformations I seen while I was reading this novel.
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.
Black and White, a novel written by Paul Volponi, tells the story of two teenagers by the name of Marcus and Eddie. Marcus, who is black, lives on the rough side of town, while Eddie, who is white, lives on the nice side of town. Despite their differences in looks and social class, the two quickly become the best of friends. The two are inseparable, they share love for basketball and are teammates on the high school squad. Their brotherly bond has earned them the nicknames, Black And White. With college scouts coming to see both boys play, the future looks bright for Eddie and especially Marcus. Unfortunately, as the cliché goes, all good things must come to an end and Marcus and Eddie’s brotherly bond is soon tested.
Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, replays a part of Beah’s life that will always be very vivid to him. The reader learn certain information based on Beah’s first person point of view. Next, he highlighted facts about his life that could not be left out of his story. He implied emotion through his diction he chose to write with. My response the book was incredible satisfaction that Beah was able to escape the horrific war and migrate to another country where he would be safe from the dangers of Sierra
The 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. Paradoxes are not only shown in A Long Way Gone, but also illustrated in other pieces of literature such as short stories, essays, and articles.
The book “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” is an autobiography about a boy named Ishmael who went through so much at a young age. This book should be read because it’s a story you could relate to and give you a perspective of how society is today than it was before and how it has affected people across the world. On the (front cover of the book) Carolyn See from the Washington Post says “Everyone in the world should read this book…We should read It to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” She’s right, reading this book will provide you with facts you never known and could change the way you see things today.
Following the life of Ishmael Beah in his autobiography, A Long Way Gone, readers experience how a young boy adjusted to drastic changes in lifestyles. The first- and perhaps more marked- change in lifestyle was when he became a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Army. The second was when he was taken away to be rehabilitated by UNICEF. Although there are several important components in both Ishmael’s life at war and his life during rehabilitation, it is his relationship with fear, how he deals with trauma, and his character in general which significantly share resemblances in each of the two mentioned lifestyles. While these changes might seem otherworldly when juxtaposed, there actually are many similarities
Ishmael Beah has experienced extreme hardships ever since he was a little boy. Growing up in Sierra Leone during war causes Ishmael’s life to revolve around such. In the nonfiction book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldiers, Ishmael Beah shares personal accounts of what it was like growing up in a period of violence and separation.
War, a state of armed conflict between different nations, states, or groups. Although small, this three letter word signifies so much more than a conflict for those involved. It symbolizes the loss of hope, faith, family, a home, someone’s childhood, and most importantly the feeling of safety. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, is an eye opener to those who have been lucky enough to escape the clutches of war. The book describes Beah’s struggle during the war in Sierra Leone, where at the age of twelve he joined the “army”. Being taken away from the war by UNICF was a blessing for Beah and his fellow boy soldiers. Although all the boys received the same care at UNICF it is the different opportunities Beah is given that