A Long Way Gone is an autobiographical novel that informs people about the civil war in Sierra Leone. This war caused massive destruction to the country physically and mentally. The citizens of Sierra Leone were forced to kill, starve, die, and leave their country for peace somewhere else. This novel describes the horrifying experiences a young boy, Ishmael Beah, had been through during the Sierra Leone civil war. The author used great motifs to describe the importance of war and familial love in the novel.
Ishmael’s life was horribly twisted when he was 12. The civil war in Sierra Leone during 1993 turned everything upside down. Ishmael was forcefully dragged into desperation, isolation, and violence. A Long Way Gone was created with the memories and stories he carried from the unreasonable blood shed, hunger, and tragedies. His stories take the reader's’ minds from the dry, deserted villages to the harsh waves of the Atlantic Ocean. This book will give readers unexpected knowledge and be an unforgettable reading experience.
In 1993, Sierra Leone had a civil war between the government and a group of rebels. The rebels called themselves the RUF, Revolutionary United Force. The RUF would go
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It is a great autobiography. It was told from his point of view. The stories were told from his experiences and memories, which makes it a memoir. Last but not least, this is a true story. A Long Way Gone is highly recommended for readers who love to read autobiographies, memoirs, non-fictions, or someone who is open-minded to learning more about the communities other than their own. This novel was a great reading experience! It expands one’s knowledge about the effects of war and the writing techniques will be a great help to young writers. It also brings awareness to the war effects towards children. This novel has character, emotions, and a great inspiration to writers with similar stories that are needed to be shared with the
The impact of war can have very harmful effects on people, especially children. In “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, he explains the war of Sierra Leone from his point of view. The tragedy of losing his family, becoming a boy soldier, and the effects of war is said throughout the book, making it an interesting story to read. But, while Ishmael explains what he went through, it is hidden that other people were affected by the actions he took. Although Ishmael did play a victimizer, he was also a victim at the same time.
A Long Way Gone is about a 12 year old boy soldier who struggles to overcome the Sierra Leone Civil War and get his normal life back after he enlists into the army because his village was starting to get attacked by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and that was the only way someone could survive. Due to being a child soldier, he was exposed to many bad situations for kids his age. One of those situations were drugs. When he was age 16, a group of men by the organization of UNICEF rescued some boys, whom one of them was Ishmael. Ishmael and the rest were taken to a rehabilitation center where they ended up causing a lot of trouble to the staff.
Many times, others view unknown situations or topics as “cool”. Many times, they fail to realize the hardships others face. In “A Long Way Gone”, Beah’s friends had thought his experiences were cool but they would not feel the same way if they had read the memoir and understood the emotions and situations he had faced. Ishmael Beah’s memoir goes on to explain all the reasons why his experiences were not nearly cool.
A Long Way Gone alone can be sufficient enough to show just what writing can do, and how much it can do so. By simply writing about his story, Ishmael thoroughly explained what horrors occurred during the Civil War in Sierra Leone and what it takes to recover these lost memories. He helped his readers gain a better understanding on topics, like child soldiers, that most remain naïve to; much like teachers do to their students, but more specifically, Social Studies and English teachers. During my first year in AMVC, I was just a little kid who was very inexperienced with paragraph writing and the supposed “flow” of an essay. But through my teachers, I was able to break free of my naïve bubble to learn more about the art of paragraph writing; and just how significant its effect can be when used
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.
Throughout the book, A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, violence is a predominant theme. Ishmael is a witness to violence at the early age of twelve when the civil war reaches his village in Sierra Leone. The death of his family, the loss of his childhood/ innocence and his transformation into a killer were all direct results of the violence due to the war. The rebel forces killed Ishmael’s mother, father, brother and grandparents during the war.
Chapter 1 :Introduction A long way gone is a true story of Ishmael Beah who was a unwilling boy soldier during a civil war in sierra Leone when he was only 12 years old. Suddenly Beah village was attacked. his country was united sates of America.
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.
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.
Annotated Bibliography Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone. N.p., n.d. PDF file. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a book that retells his own experiences as a child soldier.
A Long Way Gone: War and Rehabilitation 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.
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.
A Journey Traveled Through Pain Imagine being involved in a bloody massacre and watching your community dissipate into the dusk. Picture dodging the piercing bullets as they whisk past innocent ears. Envision your home turning into a battle ground, breaking up into military bases—flipping the world upside down. (nice capture tactic) This was peoples’ lives for many years, beginning in the 1960’s, during the Civil War in Sierra Leone.
At 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.
Additional 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.