Gianna Caruso Mrs. Wegwerth Honors Language Arts, Period 6 3-23-23 Losses in A Long Way Gone Boy soldiers' ages are getting younger and younger, some ranging from 6 years old. (WVI.org) This statistic is shocking, much like the things that happened in the book A Long Way Gone. In the text, Ishmael is faced with having to fight in the war starting at only 12 years old. Along the way, he finds other boys the same age as him or even younger. Ishmael faces the struggle of losing his family and his sense of safety in the war. Ishmael lost many things whilst being in a war, one of which being his family. One example of Ishmael losing his family is when he had been working on a farm in Kamator. Some rebels unexpectedly attacked and Ishmael and …show more content…
I was sitting on the ground with my legs spread in the dirt. I was filled up with anger. I hissed and boiled, and my heart felt like it was going to explode” (Beah 95). In this example, Ishmael’s loss is demonstrated by the loss of the opportunity to see them. He 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. Ishmael also loses his sense of safety while at war. One example of how Ishmael loses his sense of safety during war was when Ishamel decided to leave a village he had been staying at with his only friend. As Ishmael began walking away from his only friend, he was completely alone. He felt more unsafe than ever. He was constantly in fear, and checking behind him on his long journey to find a new village. This quote demonstrates how his mind raced and tormented him
Ishmael 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,
Now, as for Ishmael’s headaches and nightmares, I think it is PTSD. He went through so much as a 12-year-old, and it’s not fair. He keeps getting his hopes up, only to be destroyed. A 12-year-old should not have to worry about if they are going to survive, or if they are going to be captured, or if they are going to get killed. When the rebels surrounded the village and Ishmael had to join the fight to stay alive, I felt like crying.
Ishmael being born as a villager, the most important thing for him was to know his wild life and greenery, Ishmaels Grandparents were brought up a lot for how they taught him of plants and medicine. The period where Ishmael became lost in the forest and depressing thoughts clouded his mind, really goes to show how lonely times were for him and how hard it was to deal with all of the family lost and war. Ishmael's only way of staying alive and safe from the gangs that went from town to town killing, burning, raping and destroying villagers along with their homes, was running
For example, after being captured by the rebel group, Ishmael is forced to almost kill his brother for his initiation. Although he was fortunate enough to escape that tragedy, Beah was still later separated from his brother, Junior, and never saw him again. It’s things like this can can destroy a man’s character, and once that character is finally destroyed, that’s when you are most vulnerable. You dont know who you are anymore and you must take on a new face and persona. This is how I believe Ishmael fell so quickly to the acts of war.
Ishmael felt that he should be fighting in the war because that was all that he had known after fighting for two years. This quote shows that he truly felt lost without the military. “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. The extent of my thoughts didn't go much beyond that. We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity.
In the first few chapters of the novel everything is perfect for him. But, then the attacks happen. Ishmael and his friends go back to their village and try to find their families. They can’t.
I felt as if the ground had turned upside down and I was going to fall off, so I clutched the base of a tree with one hand. I couldn’t think, but I could hear the sounds of the guns far away in the distance and the cries of people dying in pain. I had begun to fall into some sort of nightmare” (117, 118). This serves as a perfect example of Ishmael proving he can still be human because he isn’t numb to war, he has emotion even though he has described himself as a killing machine we can still see he has emotion. To add onto that, we see Ishmael is affected by the sounds of people dying, and before it was hinted that he was unaffected or didn't care, but here is proof that he does.
This loss of innocence is a tragic and permanent result of war, and Ishmael and other child soldiers will have to live with it for the rest of their lives. He also talks about the physical and psychological trauma he experienced as a result of his experiences. This is a long-term effect of war, and it is something that child soldiers must learn to cope with for the rest of their
Ishmael 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.
Even though Ishmael had not been to the war yet, he had experienced so much trauma already. They caused him to picture terrifying situations. Even when he could settle down enough to get some sleep, terrorizing nightmares filled his mind with panic. When these things started happening to Ishmael, he tried to shut them off with drugs but it didn’t help. Instead, it would not only cause migraines but also cause him to shut down completely which demonstrates his loss of humanity.
In Ishamael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, the author’s unwavering will to live and his extraordinary resilience enabled him to endure unimaginable hardships, driven by his fear of death and steadfast optimism. Initially, Ishmael’s determination to survive was bolstered by his fear of death, enabling him to perservere which demonstrates his resilience in the midst of hardship. " I did not want to die like this, so I decided to fight harder to stay alive" (p. 120). Despite the perilous situations he faces, his persistence and determination enable him to persevere and functions as the workhorse that propels him forward. This fear not only sustains his mental resilience but also drives his resolve to seek refuge, as observed by his choice to strengthen
Ishmael does a magnificent job in telling his story, he envelops the reader and does not let go until the very end. But some will not want to be let
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
Ishmael went to many different places in his story and at many of those places horrible things happened. At most places the RUF attacked and Ishmael had to leave that place. Other places where already attacked or were going to be attacked soon but at every place Ishmael went he survived and got out. Ishmael was very lucky to live through all of the places he went because not everyone survived but he did.
As the story progresses, the reader sees that desires become a more important role in Ishmael’s life and it made him from being an innocent child into a bloodthirsty soldier only looking for something to slaughter. From these transitioning desires Ishmael becomes less and less stable, making him easily