Themes Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
The Hardship of a Child Soldier
Bang! Bang! “At that instant several gunshots, which sounded like thunder striking the tin-roofed houses, took over town. The sound of guns was so terrifying it confused everyone” (Beah 23). A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah conveys his journey through war and hardship as a child soldier. Sierra Leone, a country on the western coast of Africa, was in civil war. Throughout the country, bloodshed was bountiful as battles were being fought and lives were being lost. Ishmael Beah was introduced to war at a young age and had to learn how to survive the war stricken lands of Sierra Leone. Beah had to persistently look for food, face unimaginable dangers and run from the battle front. Eventually getting captured by the
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Beah went through war as a child soldier having to fight daily against the rebels. “I lay there with my gun pointed in front of me, unable to shoot… I felt as if the ground had turned upside down and I was going to fall off... 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.” (Beah 117-118) Beah was going through something that was utterly horrible and terrifying. After going through war as a child soldier Beah went through rehabilitation to be able to live a somewhat normal life again.“... my migraines had returned with a vengeance. It was as if a blacksmith had an anvil in my head… I cringed and rolled around on the floor… No one paid any attention, as everyone was busy going through their own withdrawal stages.” (Beah 140) Beah had to go through withdrawals that was caused by being a soldier. However Beah was able to be rehabilitated and live with his uncle and integrate back into life. “When the day of my repatriation finally came, I packed my few belongings in a plastic bag. I had a pair of sneakers, four T-shirts, three shorts, toothpaste..” (Beah 180) Beah did not have much, only a couple of t-shirts and shorts. Beah’s journey through war and rehabilitation showed his will to survive and overcome even the most vigorous of
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
Unusual Normalites By Ishmael Beah Sparknotes
617 Words | 3 PagesNow, back in his home village, he struggled to reconcile his experiences with the everyday life around him. One of the biggest challenges Beah faced was reconnecting with his family. He writes about the awkwardness and discomfort of trying to rebuild relationships that had been shattered by the war. He felt like a stranger in his own home and struggled to communicate with his parents and siblings.
Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
577 Words | 3 PagesThe biography, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, tells the story of a thirteen year old boy who spends his childhood being compelled to fight in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah tries to avoid fighting for the rebels by running from town to town with his friends as the rebels advanced. Finally, his luck runs out and Ishmael Baeh is forced to serve in the civil war for the rebels. The story goes on to describe his horrific childhood as a soldier in Sierra Leone and his eventual rescue by Unicef and rehabilitation center. In this passage, Ishmael Beah created a mental image that allows us to visualize how disturbing and how unreal living in wartone Sierra Leone during the early 1980’s.
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
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
751 Words | 4 Pages(Beah 113) While the passage above is merely a thought, Beah, according to his story, has committed acts far more violent and gruesome. If accurate, his memoir would provide unprecedented insight into the life of a child solider. However, the validity of his claims has been challenged
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier By Ishmael Beah
423 Words | 2 PagesThroughout these pages, Beah discusses his journey into becoming a soldier for the Sierra Leone Army. Within a very short time of being exposed to war, Beah had been brainwashed to kill all rebels, raided villages, become addicted to drugs, suffered from insomnia, lost all sense of reality, and described killing as “as easy as drinking water” (Beah 122). I think it is safe to say that war certainly wrecked and altered Beah's life in unimaginable ways, as it turned a gentle, innocent, rap-loving boy into a brainwashed, drug-addicted, killing
A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier By Ishmael Beah
1045 Words | 5 PagesBeing taken away from the war by UNICF was a blessing for Beah and his fellow boy soldiers. Although all the boys received the same care at UNICF it is the different opportunities Beah is given that
Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
832 Words | 4 PagesI used to only think of people fighting for their country like it was a glorious thing to do. You were always given the title, “hero,” by loved ones of a community and people throughout your home nation. By being such a public figure, i assumed that it was a wonderful thing to part in. Little did I ever actually stop and think of was really happening when people were being sent overseas to fight. I believe that this is what Beah was trying to portray to us in his memoir.
Examples Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
1890 Words | 8 PagesAll of this had a great impact on Beah, particularly his values. In “ A Long Way Gone”
Symbols In A Long Way Gone
1118 Words | 5 PagesHow 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.
Beah's Family Changes
339 Words | 2 PagesThe concept of family changes throughout Beah's experience in the war. At first, his family consists of his mother, father, and two brothers. This is when he is very young. His parents divorce, leaving him with his brother and his father, along with a stepmother. As the war begins to affect Beah, his father is left behind.
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.
A Long Way Gone, By Ishmael Beah
477 Words | 2 PagesThe rebels were obviously armed and dangerous, so Beah had to escape his town and leave his parents behind as a “sacrifice”. He had to live with other boys without the protection of his parents. This makes him wander off alone, trying to survive. He had to go through many problems without the aid and love of his parents.
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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