Symbols In A Long Way Gone
How would you feel if you were forced into warfare at the young age of thirteen as a revenge to your entire family’s death? In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone, Beah tells the story of his life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Army following Sierra Leones invasion by the Revolutionary United Front, as well as his long journey of rehabilitation following the war. Ultimately, the cruelty of the war in Sierra Leone causes Beah to obtain relationships with many symbols in his life, including his cassette tapes, the moon, as well as his dreams and nightmares.
Throughout Beah’s time as a child soldier, his humanity would be represented through his cassette tapes as he has a true love for music. Before the war, Beah and a group of friends
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After being forcefully brought into the war, while Beah puts on his new army attire, a soldier throws his rap cassettes into a fire to burn his belongings and after this occurs, Beah states, “I ran toward the fire, but the cassettes had already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away” (110). This shows how much his rap cassettes mean to him as through a powerful use of imagery, tears formed in his eyes and his lip shook, as he was extremely sad and angry that the soldier does this. After Beah is removed from the war and sent to the Benin Home on the outskirts of the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, for rehabilitation, Beah meets a nurse by the name of Esther. After Esther becomes closer with Beah, she gives Beah a gift, as Beah states, “She knew what i wanted. She gave me the Bob Marley cassette and the Walkman, along with a …show more content…
After the “white tablet” Beah takes to boost his energy before battle wheres off following his return that night, he is faced with an extreme nightmare where Beah dreams, “... I was picking up Josiah from the tree stump and a gunman stood on top of me. He placed his gun on my forehead. I immediately woke up from my dream and began shooting inside the tent” (120). This intense nightmare from Beah shows how war, especially at this young of an age causes extreme difficulties as they take drugs to try to cover up these problems which does not last. Succeeding the wars end, after falling asleep reading the lyrics of a song in rehabilitation, Beah has a nightmare where he runs home for dinner with his brother Junior from the river to find that no one was around when gets home. After arriving he is in the dark when he finds a lamp and is surrounded by men that all have guns and knives where Beah exclaims, “They began to shoot, stab, and slice each other’s throats. But they would rise and then get killed again. Their blood began to fill the room… They wailed, causing me great anguish” (164). This somber nightmare from Beah shows the oppression he faces from the war as he has killed men by shooting, stabbing, and slicing their throats as well, just as the men around him do in the nightmare. In conclusion, the oppression of the
Unusual Normalites By Ishmael Beah Sparknotes
617 Words | 3 PagesBeah describes the difficulty of readjusting to normal life and the struggle to find a sense of belonging and purpose. Beah begins his essay by describing the surreal experience of returning to his village after the war. He writes, "Everything seemed so normal, and yet it was all so surreal." Beah had spent years as a child soldier, forced to commit acts of violence and witness unspeakable atrocities.
Book Report On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
579 Words | 3 PagesIshmael 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. Ishmael and his family live in a small village called Mattru Jong. When Ishmael is twelve-years-old, his village is attacked by rebels.
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
183 Words | 1 PagesIn 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
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
Essay On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
844 Words | 4 PagesA Long Way Gone Book Review A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a very powerful memoir that shows his experiences as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone. His writings show how he went from a regular child living day to day to a violent, bloodthirsty soldier trying to survive. I enjoyed this book because Beah’s writing is honest and blunt, and he’s not afraid to describe the horrible violence and trauma he and his comrades endured as young soldiers. Despite the harsh reality of the book, Beah writes with faith and courage.
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
718 Words | 3 PagesWar is a haunting time that affects all humans in one way or another at some point in their lives, and this is explicitly shown in Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone. This book was written from the point of view of Ishmael himself, whose life experiences are almost unimaginably daunting, telling his story as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Civil War. The whole candor of the story is surprising, as Beah goes into much detail about some of the horrible things he did whilst fighting, and how this has affected him in his adolescence and adulthood. His purpose for writing is not very clear, as he published it a number of years after the war had already ended officially, which is understandable given the things he went through, which leads
Themes Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
897 Words | 4 PagesIshmael Beah, recalls his time as an orphaned child soldier, in Sierra leone, in his memoir A long way gone. Amongst those who were moved by the memorable piece of literature, there are those who quarrel with the idea that it is a completely factual account of the events that took place in Sierra Leone and the details regarding the physical wounds he obtained. While some of the claims made against its accuracy made are valid, It does not diminish the merit of the memoir. Beah’s escapade as a child soldier, his rehabilitation and the universal themes contribute to the immense worth of the novel, and allow the reader to walk away enlightened.
Examples Of War In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
816 Words | 4 PagesWar is a terrifying occurrence to be a part of but for most people, it is not part of their daily lives, and only know of it from history books and movies; But in Some countries, war is a part of people's daily lives. In his nonfiction memoir, Ishmael Beah develops his purpose to educate people on how war is not as cool as it seems through the use of being numb to emotion and drugs. Numbness to emotion is prominent in the novel. Ishmael has become a child soldier for the government and is now getting ready to kill a prisoner they captured. Ishmael writes, “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and [he] [grabs] the man's head and slit his throat…” “...
Reconstruction In A Long Way Gone
586 Words | 3 PagesTo start, one of Beah’s first major moments of adaptation to his surroundings presents itself when he first joins the Sierra Leone army. When he first arrives, Beah is nervous and finds himself unable to kill the rebels, despite his utter hatred for them. However, Beah’s fear of killing others is replaced by violence as his friends in the army are killed by rebels, and he
Strength In A Long Way Gone
648 Words | 3 PagesCarson Edwards English I Ms. Thaden 10 February 2023 Family Provides Strength Twelve-year-old soldiers, blinded by cocaine, violence, and war, can only find strength through the love of family. Ishmael Beah, in his book, A Long Way Gone, is struggling through the war but keeps going toward the ultimate goal of seeing his family again, proving how the unfailing love of family will give one the strength to persevere through the hardest times. This book shows the instinctual longing for the family during times of need. Beah remembers a quote from his father during the beginning half of his war journey.
Symbolism In A Long Way Gone
533 Words | 3 PagesHe uses the childhood memories associated with the music on the cassettes as a way to cope with the terrible things he experienced. Much later in the story, when Beah is forced to join the army, the cassettes are brought up to symbolize the death of his childhood. To get rid of the boy's past, the military sets a fire to all their clothes and
Morality In A Long Way Gone
1538 Words | 7 PagesThere was a moment in which a switch flicked after his first kill and killing became a lot easier. While in the army Beah was on many drugs including the Zaza, Brown Brown (Nose candy mixed with boom boom powder), and Pookie. Furthermore, Beah's narrative shows that moral judgments cannot always be made from an outside perspective. Those who have yet to experience war may not fully understand the ethical complexities that arise in such situations. Sympathy is very important when it comes to making moral assessments of others.
A Long Way Gone Analysis
1110 Words | 5 PagesNot 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.
Dreams In A Long Way Gone
1452 Words | 6 PagesBeah and his friends love to rap and dance, so while he and his traveling companions venture on, they have a keepsake from their former lives before the war affected them. The audience notices right after the second chapter that dreams will become an important aspect of the memoir. The dreams Beah experiences are nothing but reminders of his actions in war and the death of his family, which bring no comfort to him.
Reflection On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
498 Words | 2 PagesThe way Beah explained what happened to him, he did it in a sad way. My response to the writer is that I feel sorry for him. I cannot relate to him in any way since I have never been exposed to war and even been a soldier fighting in it. He was strong through the hardest part of his life; the actual war itself, rehabilitation, and ultimately escaping Freetown, Sierra Leone to eventually fly over to New York and start a new life. Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, replays a part of Beah’s life that will always be very vivid to him.
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