Symbolism In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
How would you feel if you were recruited as a soldier during war? Since 2001, the participation of child soldiers has been reported in 21 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world. The importance of this is portrayed in Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone. The author believes that innocent kids should not be selected to fight as soldiers, lose their innocence killing people, witnessing violent scenes and suffer because of war. This is seen throughout the symbolism of the novel. Firstly, the first symbol that symbolizes Beah’s loss of innocence is the AK-47. The AK-47 symbolizes in the novel the loss of innocence and provides confidence and a sense of security. We can see his loss of innocence on page 19, “I saw myself holding an AK-47 and walking through a coffee farm with a squad that consisted of many boys and a few adults. We were on our way to attack a small town …show more content…
The white sheet symbolizes his purity and innocence but when he sees his own face in the dead body it symbolizes the opposite, “ I collapse on the ground and hold the body in my arms. Blood spots begin to emerge on the white bedsheets covering it. (...) I lift the cloth from the body’s face. I am looking at my own face ” (Beah 19). The quote shows the process of how Beah loses his innocence because of war, because it describes how the white sheet, the symbol of innocence, gets dirty from the blood of the dead body. Also when Ishmael sees his face in the body it shows his desperation from the war and his suffering. To conclude, the author believes that a kid should not suffer and lose their purity during war. This is seen through symbols in the memoir a Long Way Gone like the Ak-47, the baby and the white sheet. This theme is significant because it is a real-world problem and many children suffer from it. People should find a solution before it is too
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,
Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
357 Words | 2 PagesA 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
Symbolism In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael
574 Words | 3 PagesSymbolism is used to help you not only understand the characters but also helps develop a coherent theme. In the long way gone the symbol used to help explain Ishmael’s struggles comes straight from his own pocket in the form of a beat-up cassette. It follows him along on the journey and with its demise you also see the tragic end of the childhood it has represented. When the fighting and violence started to occur brought by rebels and soldiers Beah and his friends still had the cassettes to enjoy and dance around with allowing them to still have an essence of childhood.
Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
447 Words | 2 PagesThis led to Beah and his family separating and doing anything to survive. Beah experienced many terrifvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vfdv dfv df v fdv dfv fdv dfv dfmv mdf vmdf vm dfvmfvdfvdfvying moments during the civil war in Sierra Leone and he helps us see what happens to him
How Does Ishmael Beah Use Literary Devices In A Long Way Gone
887 Words | 4 PagesIn A Long Way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah explains his life and how he became a child soldier during Sierra Leone's civil war. During recounting his experiences, Beah uses literary devices which include metaphors, similes, personification, and symbolism to communicate his experiences. Before the war, Ishmael Beah was just a boy who enjoyed listening to rap music cassettes with his friends and preparing for the talent show. Ishmael Beah finally narrates the book when he is an adult, he tells us how carrying the tapes throughout the war changed his life. In his memoir, he used many associations with cassette tapes as a motif to show his psychological degradation and rehabilitation throughout his time in the civil war and return
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
642 Words | 3 PagesFurthermore, Beah has struggled with losing his family and is brain washed that he starts to lose his humanity. To clarify, when the rebels were planning an attack on a village Beah releases his anger on the rebels by shooting as many rebels from the other village as he can. “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, but I didn't feel any better”(122). In this moment, the pain that Beah has from losing his family turns into hatred for the rebels that killed his loved ones and Beah believes that killing more
The Role Of Music In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
318 Words | 2 PagesIn Ishmael Beah’s personal memoir, A Long Way Gone, music courses through the story quite often. Music is first seen in Ishmael’s peaceful childhood. He and his friends enjoy singing and dancing along to music, in particular, Rap Music. As the story progresses, and the war becomes more prevalent in the young boys lives, rap continues to play a substantial role in their lives, just in a different way. At the end of Ishmael’s life story, there is yet another role that music plays.
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.
Violence In A Long Way Gone
505 Words | 3 PagesThe memoir “A Long Way Gone” describes multiple incidents that show that war takes away innocence. Ishmael was thirteen when he joined the war. Beah admits, “My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seems as if my heart frozen.” (Chapter 15, page 126) During a period of violence, a child cannot be a child.
A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah Character Analysis
657 Words | 3 PagesWhat 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.
A Long Way Gone Annotated Bibliography
1454 Words | 6 PagesAnnotated 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.
All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War Essay
1064 Words | 5 PagesThroughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
Ishmael Beah's Memories
775 Words | 4 PagesThrough this quote you are able to see just how much memories of his life have affected his journey through it and how he thinks tom his family for guidance and help in the hard and sad times of his life. In conclusion you see how memories both hindered and helped Ishmael on his journey of life by himself. In that some of them made him more sad and distracted him from what 's happening in his life now. And others helped him stay motivated and kept him on his journey.
A Long Way Gone Character Analysis
1035 Words | 5 Pages”(Beah, 112). The corporal uses the rebels as a way to control the children 's emotions and use them for himself. He makes Ishmael’s desire start to transition towards creating destruction. Later, Ishmael and his friend’s enter into the battlefield. During this time, Ishmael kills his first victim and his desire completely turns into killing sprees.
Reflection On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
498 Words | 2 Pages(Conclusion) Ishmael Beah narrated his personal experience from an honest point of view. By doing so, he enabled the reader to understand everything he chose to explain head on, with no barriers. The reader was able to know what Beah went through, in his own words. “I began to cry quietly and all of a sudden felt dizzy,” (Beah 34). The readers were able to understand how he felt in certain situations.
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