Preview

Analysis of A Long Way Gone

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
554 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis of A Long Way Gone
Ishmael Beah
“ A long way gone” There are many problems in the world, children who suffer from any diseases and/ or are taken away from their families but there is so much more to it. Ishmael Beah was a young boy when captured to become a child soldier. His story is just one out of the million others out there; he became a voice to the ones unheard. Beah’s childhood was taken away, as well as his innocence. He would no longer do the things he enjoyed and spend his time playing with friends. Sometimes life has many bumps along the way, but this wasn’t just a bump, it was something he’d have to live with forever. The things we all experience make us who we are.
Ishmael Beah was just 12 years old when he first experienced war. He was on his way to Matru Jong to participate in a friend’s talent show, but he never knew his life would be impacted. Ishmael had a talent he was a great dancer, enjoyed dancing with his friends. At that time there were many attacks by the Rebel Army in Sierra Leone. The Rebels would attack small villages and take children to become part of their army. The children were taken away from their family, never to see them again. All the kids were trained to kill, to be ruthless. No child should ever live through a situation like that. Ishmael shared his experiences to the world, his tragic childhood. Everything Ishmael Beah experienced helped him to become a strong man. He dealt with drug abuse and many other things; he became what he most feared. He was separated from his friends, believing any day would be his last. Ishmael lost his innocence with all the things he experienced, his childhood dreams all taken away. Everything became nightmares to him; leaving him with no hope at all of his future. The children were forced onto war, to fight in a battle that wasn’t theirs. Ishmael would live with it for his whole life. Ishmael is a great example of hope, even he lost everything he had he was able to back on his feet and be the voice of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I believe Ishmael’s level of resilience throughout the story was immensely high considering the age he was during the war. One example, was when Ishmael first experiences the war and loses all of his family except his brother, Junior. Ishmael does not complain about walking miles and miles all day long in the scorching sun, when many kids his age would start complaining after fifteen minutes on a nice breezy day. As well as, when Ishmael was all alone in the forest he did not act crazy about the freedom he had, but instead was orderly and still did day to day necessary activities while remaining calm. He always shows that even in the toughest situations he acts just like an adult and is always in control, when kids his age lost their cool and acted crazy leading them to die. Last but not least, when Ishmael was at the rehabilitation center he did act agitated, but recovers from the worst thing a child could be during the war, a child soldier. He acts insane and puts his life at risk when he is a soldier because he did drugs everyday and killed hundreds of people for years, and all it takes for him to recover to be a normal child again is eight months.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    They soldiers went into a kitchen where MPs found them and took them to a rehabilitation center in Kissy town. Since they didn't trust anyone and craved for drug, they keep resorting to violence. Especially if they're angry. Ishmael would desperately try to remember his childhood to make him feel better, but memories from the war kept him from doing that.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This chapter is filled with contrasts, especially the days of peace versus the days of war. There is also the contrast of Ishmael cooking dinner as gunshots ring out throughout the town. There is the contrast of people running for their lives over the bodies of those who have fallen. Finally, there is the contrast of a town filled with sounds of life and one filled with fear and death. Ishmael, Junior and the other boys are now officially on the run.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Sierra Leone Civil War that started on March 23, 1991, the eleven-year armed conflict caused the displacement of many citizens and the conscription of child soldiers. The novel A Long Way Gone, shows the memoir of Ishmael Beah’s childhood during the violent years of the war. Throughout the story the author Beah embodies the loss of innocence in many parts of his early life. Using the different events that Beah experiences, the author displays the transition of youthfulness to the end of Beah’s childhood. When Beah is inducted into the military and endures hardships, he truly loses innocence and stops calling flashbacks to his childhood causing him to disconnect from reality.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the beginning of his memoir, Beah illustrates how the civil war split many children, including himself, from their families causing affliction among them by showing how he and other children from his village were abandoned and forced to join the army—or even get captured by rebels. For example, Beah recalls the exact moments when the rebels attacked his village, “When the rebels finally came [into my village], I was cooking. The rice was done and the okra soup was almost ready when I heard a single gunshot that echoed through the town…My heart was beating faster than it ever had. Each gunshot seemed to cling to the beat of my heart…I thought about where my family was, whether I would be able to see them again, and wished that they were safe…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A long way gone by Ishmael Beah is a story about his experiences as a child soldier in a civil war in Sierra Leone. He vividly showcases his life during the war by writing about his memories and his emotions in those particular situations. By displaying such scenarios, Beah indirectly explains his audience and purpose of his writing.…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ishmael Beah grew up in a town known as mattru jong, during the hard times of the civil war beahs village was under attack by a group known as the rebels. The group of friends that beah…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah the author describes his experiences in the Sierra Leone civil war. He faced many challenges, and this affected him in many ways. The Sierra Leone war brought Beah into conflict with his own humanity, specifically his will to live, his empathy, and his trust.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    stare at it until it looked like water before drinking or taking a shower…Other times, the younger boys sat by rocks weeping and telling us that the rocks were their dead families” (Beah 145). Anytime something would remind Ishmael of his experiences he would wander off in thought, reliving the terrible scenes of the past in his head. The violence of the war also left many without trust. People had to rely on themselves and live in constant fear. They never discussed what they thought or felt. It took Ishmael a while to learn to open up to others…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout history wars have been fought mercilessly and without remorse especially in guerilla warfare. In A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael beah, explains in vivid detail his experience during the war and the horrors it came with. Throughout his journey he tends to see the environment around him fall apart. While it may seem hellish and unforgiving nature itself tries to run from the war. Nature itself does not consider war to be natural since it is driven by murder rather than…

    • 87 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story “ A Long Way Gone” the main character Ishmael Beah demonstrates a lot of violent actions. His actions begin to change throughout the entire book. One of Ishmael’s violent changes that really taught and helped me understand the many consequences that will happen when you choose to act in a violent manner is when he was going back to his village and noticed that they were being invaded, and they were getting low on food he sacrifices his life to make sure his village is ok. It teaches me that when things happen you sometimes have to change to make things better. When Ishmael and his friends were sent to participate in the war,they got addicted to drugs and started using them way more frequently now. As a consequence the boys were…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The following quote, “When I was young my father used to say, ‘If you’re alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die’ I thought about these words during my journey, and they kept me moving even when I didn’t know where I was going. Those words became the vehicle that that drove my spirit forward and made it say alive.” (Beah, 54) is an example of how Ishmael slowly begins to let go at the loss of his family by remembering them as he slowly makes his way away from the war. By reliving memories Ishmael manages to mourn at the idea of never seeing his family again, this helps to keep him sane so the anger doesn’t eat his humanity away.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ishmael was mentally and physically challenged as a child solider. The RUF constrained the children to do medications, for example, cocaine, pot, and "chestnut cocoa," which give them the guts to fight and the ability to forget their emotions in times of war. Their everyday presence is a battle of survival, Beah wind up submitting acts he would never have done for example, taking nourishment from kids and killing innocent villagers. If Ishmael or any other child soldier didn’t comply with what the RUF soldiers told them to do, their families and anything they love would be threatened. The novel A Long Way Gone makes an incredible showing with regards to delineating the life of a child…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Long Way Gone Analysis

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I’m not the kind to read sad stories about someones life. I praise Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy solider. He put the unthinkable into words that were carefully crafted in order to make them perfectly flow from the text, to my head.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The virtue of storytelling is an instrumental, necessary and valuable skill that ensures the comprehension of content. Storytelling, therefore, ensures that the intended message lingers in people’s minds hence ensuring that integration takes place. A good and educative story ensures that the content is consumed in an easier and efficient manner. The art of storytelling is highly demonstrated in A Long Way Gone, and this can be highly illustrated by the various myths and stories incorporated and they play a fundamental of role. The basis for this is that they are instrumental in conveying some life lessons that are vital to ensuring that Ishmael is in a position to survive on his own. This is after the bloody civil war wrecks…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays