...A Long Way Gone: Examples of Bravery There is estimated to be 250,000 child soldiers in the world. They are forced to kill and mutilate people, sometimes their own families. In the memoir A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah recalls his experiences as a boy soldier, and the impact it had on his life. Ishmael met many people along the way that helped him in his race to find safety. These people were very brave and took many risks for his safety. The people Ishmael show along the way show bravery many times. Early in the memoir, Ishmael and his friends showed bravery when they decided to sneak back to Mattru Jong in order to get the money that had left behind. At this point in the memoir, Mattru Jong had been overtaken by rebels, so returning to this particular village meant that ishmael and friends risked being shot, mutilated, or forced to become boy soldiers. However, without that money they would not be able to buy food and would face starvation. Fortunately, Ishmael and friends were able to secure the money, but faced life-threatening at every turn of the journey. Recalling the danger of crawling through an open clearing to avoid rebel gunfire, Ishmael states, “We started to crawl across the clearing at the signal of the first group that had it across...There were dead bodies everywhere and flies were feasting on the congealed blood on them” (Beah 28). Ishmael had the inner strength to remain calm and make it through this horrifying situation. Throughout the memoir, Ishmael demonstrates...
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...The piece of literature that grabbed my attention and had a great effect on me is A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which was written by Ishmael Beah. The book is about Ishmael and his older brother and how they survived during the war in Sierra Leone. The boys live in horrific conditions and under a constant risk for their lives. The only thing that keeps them going is their hope, faith, love and memories about their family since they were told that there family was alive. However, due to the heartbreaking circumstances, the boys do not meet their family. As a consequence of such a cruel surviving, Ishmael and his friends are forced to become fearless child soldiers. However, Ishmael is eventually rescued by the United nations where he undergoes complete rehabilitation in the United States. Ishmael’s book inspires me to fight against injustice and crimes. I was born in Nepal, where we moved from, to the current residence in the US. Nepal is also under great political instability and social differences. Hence this book inspired me to fight against injustice and crimes. As a consequence, I am trying to make people aware by encouraging my friends and family to educate the Nepalese citizens. The book also provides a unique perspective of the dark sides of civil wars. I have learnt not to judge people instantly because their upbringing may have been completely different. Here, at the community college, I have met friends from different cultures and backgrounds. I have...
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...A Long Way Gone is a memoir of Ishmael Beah. At the age of twelve years old his life was changed completely when he was first touched by war when the rebels first attacked his home town, Mogbwemo in Sierra Leone. This book shows the hardships, loneliness, violence and cruelty Ishmael went through. With Ishmael's courage he manages to get through the hard times he faces during his childhood while having lost his innocence. This book is moving and uplifting even with the unimaginable brutality against other humans, Ishmaels unexpected acts of kindness touch your soul. While fleeing the rebels Ishmael and his friends walked from village to village finding a safe place far from the war. At villages they were given food and water and it gave them a sense of happiness even though they know it isn't for long. They knew that their happiness is only temporary and that harder times were coming their way. Ishmael's goal in life was just to survive each passing day. Not every village they came across were they offered food and water, some villages believed they were rebels and men would confront them with spears and axes. Saidu, one of the boys traveling with Beah had lost all hope, “Every time people come at...
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...When reading both Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah's memoirs regarding their experience with the Sierra Leone Civil War, it's evident that the authors endured similar suffering and hardships. The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClellan and A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah have many similarities in regards to the two themes; loss of innocence and survival despite great suffering. Mariatu and Ishmael thoroughly demonstrated resilience all while experiencing the struggles of being a child during war. To start, both characters recalled memories of family members saying important things to them in order to give themselves hope for survival. On page 45 of The Bite of the Mango, Mariatu recalls her grandmother saying, “...every person has a spirit watching over him or her. Some people, if they’re really good, have two or three spirits. These spirits are often relatives who have died, like a grandfather, like Santigie, and sometimes they come to you in the guise of an animal, a bird or a reptile.” This helped Mariatu continue on her journey to safety, feeling like she had a guardian angel. As for Ishmael, page...
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...children, now acts for those who think they have no choice but to fight. Being the author of a book titled A Long Way Gone provides a platform that allows Beah to provide a better life for those in combat during their youth. This motivational memoir is about Beah’s time as a child soldier himself. Ishmael Beah has used his firsthand experiences of war and death to gain an education as well as a place in the world of advocates and entrepreneurs. Ishmael Beah had a pretty normal childhood. Well, about as normal as a childhood could be for one living in the midst of a civil war. Born November 23, 1980, Beah grew up in Sierra Leone. When he was 12 years old his country was...
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...it hopes and its aspirations, before you lies the future, a future full of golden promises” (Jefferson Davis) “A Long Way Gone” was written by Ishmael Beah and published in 2007. This is a novel about a young boy who was affected by war. Ishmael Beah experienced a lot of horrible things because of the war like losing his family. He later is recruited by the rebel army. The rebel army gives drugs to the recruited child soldiers and make them addicted so they kill without feeling anything. He then gets rehabilitated with the help of the UNICEF. The three most important scenes in this story include going into mattru jong to perform dances, trying to survive day to day troubles,and his life in New York City....
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...A Long Way Gone Essay Matthew Morgan Prof. Carey “On Democracy” Due: 02/27/08 For the “Everybody Reads” assignment I choose to attend the Central library book group discussion. When I first got there I was really surprised because I thought it was going to be a bigger event than what it was. There was only about 10 people total, and 5 of us were students who were there for this exact assignment. It was a really interesting discussion because half of the people that attended were my age and the other half was about two generations older, so there was a very diverse pool of perspectives and opinions. But because there was a large generation gap it was a bit more difficult for me to share my views, so I mainly listened and observed other people’s thoughts. The discussion itself was very helpful because of the different views people had about the memoir. One of the themes of A Long Way Gone that we discussed was the importance of hope. We mainly talked about how this theme was not constant throughout the memoir and that it changed with time. For example one person brought up how at first Ishmael’s only motivator was the hope of his parents being alive, then when he realized that he would never be reunited with them he had lost his hope. It was only when he remembered what his father had said about a person only lives if they have something to live for which gave him his hope back. As far as themes that’s really the only one that we discussed, but we did discuss a lot...
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...A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah illustrates Beah’s childhood under Sierra Leone's Civil war in the 1990s. The book recounts Beah’s experience as a 12 year old boy struggling to find his family. Although this book mainly follows Beah, it also gives a lot of insight on the instability in African countries like Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah was a normal child before the Civil war in Sierra Leone, which is what the beginning of the book illustrates. In the early chapters, Beah talks about his childhood, which seemed to be very normal (Beah, 6). However, his childhood would take a drastic turn for the worse. When visiting his friends in Mattru Jong, Beah runs into swarms of people talking of rebellion. One passerby warned...
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...There are child soldiers throughout the world that no one knows about, who are forced to fight in wars with no cause like Ishmael Beah. The memoir A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because the content of the text has connections to the real world and the text is complex enough that the reader has to infer information about the circumstances Beah is in and the ability of humans to come out of the devastating effect of war. Throughout the memoir, the reader has to connect Beah’s scenarios with the outside world for a better understanding of the content in the memoir. In general, while Beah is in New York with other child soldiers he states, “Some of the children had risked their life to attend the conference” (196). Here, Beah connects his circumstance with others to portray that there are child soldiers all over the world fighting battles and risking their lives for a cause they do not believe in. The reader gets a better understanding of the outside world from the content of the book because they have to make connections with what is happening outside of their comfort zone. This is appropriate for English IV curriculum because the reader begins to understand the world from Beah’s explanations of what he has been through to understand the reality and toll of war. Furthermore, during the beginning...
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...The book “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah is a book that has many themes and lessons. It is a true story about a boy soldier. One of the themes in this book is survival. When war hit Ishmael Beah, it was all about survival until the end. From the moment Ishmael fled the violence at Mattru Jong, the focus of his life became surviving. For months, Beah had to survive by overcoming hunger and violence. Survival was the most important theme in the book. Ishmael had to survive the war and in the forest all alone. He lost his family and friends. To stay alive during war, he had to join the army. He had to overcome his hunger, the violation, and the isolation. The book states “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control...
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...Ishmael Beah on C-span Ishmael Beah, who wrote A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, published in 2007 and interviewed in C-span by, Brian Lamb (2007) explains that he was a boy soldier living a brutal life and had little to no hope for himself because of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Ishmael was not the only that was impacted but also by millions of the world wanting to stop child brutality and it explains to the first world countries how life is not pleasant everywhere. Although, Ishmael Beah talks to the interviewer, Brian Lamb and intonating in a miserable and gloomy but journalistic tone. The war has impacted him today and has unlocked his creativity in how own comfortable way, talking to someone about his miserable life in such an smooth and incredibly controlling way. It has made me believe that he’s overcome his harsh life challenges. Ishmael was so...
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...costumes of their favorite soldier, dreaming of engaging in warfare, only to abandon the costume the following day. For children of Sierra Leone however, the costume is plastered against their bodies, and the dreams of the American children is their reality. Children residing in Sierra Leone from the years of 1991- 2002 were forced to participate in their country’s civil war, having to endure countless atrocious experiences. If these children are able to evade death for a long enough time, they may be lucky enough to be moved to a completely foreign area for rehabilitation and reintegration back into regular society. However, due to their role in the war, child soldiers...
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...In the historic memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael documents his experiences of becoming a child soldier in the war struck country, Sierra Leone. Beah flashes back to his life in Mogbwemo where his family, including his brother, Junior and his friends, Mohamed and Talloi were all content with the life they were living. One thing he shared in common with all of them was their fascination with rap music. Rap was their form of happiness despite their never-ending fear of being attacked. Unfortunately, as the boys and Ishmael went to participate in a talent show, the rebel army returned to Mogbwemo without a given warning and began shooting all villagers in site. In this ‘life or death’ situation, many families were separated and were forced to leave their belongings for the sake of living and successfully escaping their home....
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...A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah was an innocent boy who enjoyed playing football, swimming in the streams, and even started a rap and dance group with his friends and older brother. The group discovered their love for rap music from old cassette tapes of O.P.P, Run D.M.C, and the Sugarhill Gang. Ishmael and Junior, along with their other friends cherished these few hip hop and rap cassette tapes. Ishmael constantly carried these couple tapes on him at all times. They choreographed dance routines and memorized all of the lyrics. The boys also entered a talent show in a close town. Ishmael, Junior, Talloi, and Mohamed have been singing and dancing to rap music since they first formed the group when Ishmael was only eight years old. They learned of rap during a visit to Mobimbi, where their fathers worked for an American company. They were transfixed by the music and returned to Mobimbi as often as they could to watch rap on their big television. Ishmael was shocked mostly because the black men could speak English so well and so quickly to the beat (Lisa). Ishmael and his group were inspired by the rap music. Music represented Ishmael’s transformation into the modern world. The entire group is mesmerized by rap musicians. Music became a way to escape reality of the war, express themselves by writing lyrics, and it eventually saves their lives. Ishmael and the boys all worked together as a group to create music. They also started changing the way they would dress, act, and...
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...the television in their living room whose ribs protrude from her skin and whose lips are cracked from lack of water, they turn away. From the frail, homeless veteran less than a mile from their front door, holding out his trembling hands and pleading with eyes full of pain, they turn away. People turn away and ignore the most excruciating truths of the world to avoid the discomfort and responsibility that comes with acknowledging reality. Whether it is used by individuals and villages as coping mechanisms or by countries that remain negligent to their neighbors’ problems, ignorance can be a deadly vice. Although Ishmael Beah’s survival in the war was dependent on withdrawing from reality and losing himself, both his and Mariatu Kamara’s memoirs prove that willful ignorance is a temporary solution to a...
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