A Long Way Gone speaks of a child soldier who follows the idea of the word resume. Ishmael Beah's life went through a pause when he found himself surrounded by war. His book speaks of this pause in his life and how he resumed it. As a child in Sierra Leone, Beah had to face much more hardship than most anyone, but life can make anyone lose their way and put who they are on pause. However, Life may have a pause button, but it doesn’t rewind.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is the true story of Ishmael Beah’s, the author and narrator, experience leading into and eventually becoming a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s military during the Sierra Leonean Civil War. The story begins with Beah, then a twelve year old child, leaving his home village of Mattru Jong to attend a talent show where he and other boys, including his brother Junior, would hip-hop dance to their favorite music genre, rap. On his way he encounters his grandmother’s village where she convinces the boys to stay the night, in the morning he is stunned to learn that Mattru Jong was attacked by the Royal United Front (RUF) and that the people who were in the village were now dead or refugees. After this, Ishmael
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is the painfully true biography of Ishmael, his elder brother Junior, their friends and their journey to out run a war that is occurring in their hometown, Sierra Leone. The majority of the story takes place in Sierra Leon in between the years of 1993 and 1998. Ishmael’s journey begins the January of 1993 when he is the age of twelve. Individuals have begun to revolt which takes everything a turn for the worse. The rebels have struck the country with fear and caused complete chaos by killing families and destroying what they once called home.
In Ishmael Beah’s memoir ‘a long way gone’, Beah describes his experience as a child soldier. A deep message that Beah conveys is that “children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings if given the chance”. During Beah’s journey as a child soldier, he commits multiple graphic acts under the influence of drugs, such as demanding that prisoners dig their own graves, then burying them alive (151). This event shows how far gone mentally Beah
A Long Way Gone is an autobiography written by Ishmael Beah, the book details his childhood throughout the Sierra Leon civil war. The book shows how you can turn an innocent child into a killing machine. We see both sides of the warring party do this with them drugging the children, turning them against the enemy with propaganda and threatening them with death. These are the factors that made a quarter of all the soldiers within this war under the age of eighteen.
A Long Way Gone Book Review Ishmael Beah is a well-known author of the memoir A Long Way Gone which is about a teen Sierra Leonean boy from a small village of Mattru Jong who went through the terrors of war. The book shows how the civil war happening in Sierra Leone at the time affected the lives of many children and families who had no food, water or hope to live. With the rebels raiding towns disguised as civilians, people lost trust in others, even kids. The people were constantly tortured until they said something and were thrown out of villages.
A Long Way Gone is a memoir written with Ishmael Beah’s memories of the civil war that happened in his hometown, Sierra Leone. Beah’s determination for survival and use of descriptive imagery of the war gives us a chance to feel like we’re actually in the war with him. Ishmael Beah was only a twelve year old boy when the war came to his village. Because he lost his family in the war, Ishmael had to learn how to survive on his own along with some other boys. Together, they took care and watched out for each other in the wilderness while trying to find a safe place to hide from the rebels, the people attacking their country.
It is all downhill from there. Following, he is separated from his mother and sister, which is the last time he saw them. Then he is tortured, literally. Beat, starved, deprived of sleep and water. To top it off, his father passes away due to being in horrible conditions while being held prisoner.
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
Murderer. When you think about this word, the first thing that pops into your mind wouldn’t be a child, but for many around the world, this is the case. Over 300,000 children fight in wars around the world, slaughtering person after person without mercy. Ishmael Beah’s a long way gone is about the author’s first-hand experience of the 10 – year civil war in Sierra Leone, in which he was turned into one of these brutal, savage killers and then later rehabilitated. In the beginning of the book, young Ishmael, who is about 12 years old at the time, travels to a city called Mattru Jong with his brother, Junior, to participate in a talent show, where they learn that their village was attacked by a rebel group.
A Long Way Gone: inaugurates a world where young men, like Ishmael Beah, are forced to participate in the civil war of Sierra Leone causing them to lose their families. This book definitely outlines the importance of family through Ishmael’s experiences of adaptation, i s o l a t i o n , a n d m e m o r i e s o f h i s p a s t . A L o n g W a y G o n e t e a c h e s u s a l e s s o n t o a p p r e c i a t e t h e family we have, compared to the loneliness Ishmael once felt as a young
Loss, anger, violence “I imagined capturing several rebels at once, locking them inside a house, sprinkling gasoline on it, and tossing a match” (Beah 113). In Sierra Leone’s civil war, families were torn apart, entire generations lost, these events caused strife in the hearts of the survivors, who searched for revenge. In the memoir A Long Way Gone, a young boy named Ishmael Beah, has his life turned inside out as he tries to survive the civil war in his country. In the country Sierra Leone, Ismael Beah has decided to travel to a nearby town to perform in a talent show when he gets news of a rebel attack on his home. His brother Junior, friends Gibrilla, Talloi, Khalilou and Kaloko and him try to get back, but it is too dangerous to go back
In A Long Way Gone, “he writes one of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I was not sure when or where it was going to end. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I felt that I was starting over and over again” (Beah, Ishmael 69). Beah's memoir sheds light on the multifaceted damage done by civil war and terrorism. As a victim of the violence, a young man who has lost his family and way of life and is in turn considered dangerous by most of the civilians he encounters, Beah suffers more than simiple physical pain.
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.
What is the meaning of adversity? Adversity is the difficulties, misfortunes, and sometimes even trials one must face in order to jump over an obstacle. WWll, holocaust, Racism are all adversities that pertain to individuals and events in the past and the present. One of the events that happened was in Sierra Leone and it was a Civil war between different African tribes. This event is explained through the eyes of the main character in the book “A Long Way Gone”, and his name is Ishmael Beah.
