...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...
Words: 1013 - Pages: 5
...The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone involved an estimated 10,000 children fighting for both the rebel forces, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and for the Sierra Leone government (Jang). Many people know Ishmael Beah’s story about his childhood as a child soldier, but not many know about what he does to help kids who are going through the same thing he went through. Ishmael Beah is a former boy soldier from Sierra Leone who used his awful past as fuel to become a better person and help children who are in the same situation as he was. Ishmael’s childhood was definitely not easy, even before the war. His parents were divorced, and his father went through multiple wives after Ishmael’s mother. Ishmael’s stepmothers, who did not want...
Words: 1288 - Pages: 6
...Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah explores his time as a child soldier for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces during the country’s civil war. During the course of the book, Beah recounts his time of being brainwashed into being a child soldier after his family and entire town is brutally murdered by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), while Beah is away with friends to attend a talent show. After years of committing violent crimes with the rebel army, and abusing various drugs such as “brown-brown” during his teenage years, Beah is removed from the rebel army by UNICEF and taken to a rehabilitation center where he heals from his time in the army and begins to opens up to others and learns to forgives himself and the people...
Words: 1306 - Pages: 6
...Throughout history, humans have used literature as a way to express emotions, feelings, and tell intriguing stories. A Long Way Gone, a memoir written by Ishmael Beah and “Weapon Conflict”, a song performed by Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars are two differing pieces of literature that render powerful messages about the menaces of war that these authors have faced. In the 1990’s, war broke out between harsh rebels and the corrupt government of Sierra Leone. Beah and the members of Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars have different, yet effective ways of telling their stories about the horrors of Sierra Leone. Nevertheless, A Long Way Gone, expresses the true dangers of war more effectively than “Weapon Conflict” because it goes into...
Words: 906 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 953 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1395 - Pages: 6
...This book, A Long Way Gone, tells a biography of Ishmael Beah. Ishmael Beah starts out as an innocent boy who is fascinated with rapping with his friends. When he is 12 years old, his village is attacked by rebels while he is performing in a rap group at school. Among the confusion, violence and the air of uncertainty of the war, Ishmael and his brother, Junior, and his friends wander from villages to villages in a desperate search of food and sanctuary. Their daily struggle for survival causes them to commit acts that they have never believed themselves capable of, such as stealing food from the younger children. Eventually, Ishmael is conscripted as a solider by the army and he becomes a killing machine who enjoys horrible violence. The...
Words: 416 - Pages: 2
...Ishmael Beah All around the world, children have no choice but to fight in war in order to stay alive. Ishmael Beah, once one of these 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...
Words: 2052 - Pages: 9
...Guns give people immense power, the sort of power you wouldn’t want anyone to be able to possess; the power to hurt, destroy, and manipulate those around them. The book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, follows the story of young Ishmael Beah during the war in Sierra Leone. It tells step by step the events that led up to Beah being captured and forced to fight in a war at the mere age of thirteen. Those with the most power in this war were the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), they attack villages looking for people to force to fight alongside them but if you were to refuse or if they thought you were not good enough, they would kill you. “The rebels fired their guns toward the sky, as they shouted and merrily danced their way into...
Words: 398 - Pages: 2
...“I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for” (Beah 167). These were the words Ishmael Beah uttered as he began to give up hope of making it out of the war after the mental, physical, and emotional damage he had been through. Ishmael Beah was a child soldier the Sierra Leone government army recruited to fight against the rebels in the Sierra Leone Civil War. He was forced to fight in the war when he turned thirteen and he fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF. Throughout his time in the war, he had seen extremely horrifying actions that no child should ever see. History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned internationally because child soldiers suffer from mental illnesses, are exposed to...
Words: 778 - Pages: 4
...book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, we see that he faces many challenges and conflicts. These challenges prevent Ishmael from reaching safety and living a normal life back in Sierra Leone. Most of the time, the main character is facing challenges that are caused by other people. These people, like Ishmael, are trying to get away from the war that has caused chaos in the country. Children and teens around his age were most likely to be thrown into the war to fight either on the Sierra Leonean government’s side or the rebels, the Revolutionary United Front. The people that saw Ishmael and his friends, they tried to kill them because they could have been rebels. All of the problems he faces prevent Ishmael and his friends from getting somewhere safe. First, we see Ishmael running away from his home in Sierra Leone. Once a peaceful village full of music and laughter , then was brutally attacked by the...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...At a young age, Ishmael Beah had experienced war. He had lost his home and family to rebels and had seen many innocent lives be taken away. Ishmael had to grow up really fast and learn to defend for himself in his new society. The war has not only taken Ishmael’s childhood away, but has had a psychological impact on him. Throughout the novel Ishmael uses symbolism and flashbacks to show, the theme of loss of innocence. This causes Ishmael to have painful memories of his childhood and lose the one thing a child should have – innocence. Even though Ishmael had gone through many hardships since the war started he clearly states that the instant he was recruited into the military at 13 was the moment he lost his childhood. As Beah travels throughout...
Words: 455 - Pages: 2
...Some of the character traits that Ishmael shows in the beginning of the book is that he is a studious and innocent child. This quote is from before Ishmael is affected by the war, when he was a young boy at the age of eight and takes place in Mobimbi, a city in Sierra Leone. Ishmael, his brother and some friends like listening to rap and formed a dance group. Ishmael says, “The four of us had started a rap dance group when I was eight. We were first introduced to rap music during one of our visits to Mobimbi. […] I loved the dance, and particularly enjoyed learning the lyrics because they were poetic and it improved my vocabulary” (Beah,6). This quotation shows that before Ishmael became a soldier, he was an innocent child who liked to listen and dance to rap music with his brother and friends, much like kids...
Words: 1461 - Pages: 6
...Justin Klein Mrs. Henricks English 102: 21 January 2014 Beneficial Rap The novel A Long Way Gone describes the way of life of a young child solider. Ishmael Beah, the author of this novel, gives dramatic detail throughout the book of his various problems and difficulties he has dealt with over time. Not only does the problems he has effect his family, but his close friends as well. One of Ishmael’s hobbies was listening to rap music with his friends. He often talked about his favorite artists for rap such as Naughty by Nature and LL Cool J. Not only did Ishmael enjoy listening to rap, but he also performed in talent shows with his friends all rapping together. Ismael often finds himself in terrible situations throughout the war. He and his friends must learn to survive with what they have and what they find. Times are so rough for Ismael and his friends that they almost lose all hope. Rap music brings joy to Ismael when times are tough. Ishmael likes the beats, and although he doesn't understand it all he seems to like the masculine messages behind the music. The tapes that he constantly carries around with him reminds everyone that he is still a boy. Although he goes through some pretty horrific experiences, the cassette tapes remind the readers and Ishmael of his innocence. At various times the music even saves the boys from villagers’ fears that they are child soldiers. Not only does he enjoy this music, but the music often saves his life. When Ismael went...
Words: 887 - Pages: 4
...Ishmael Beah, a scared boy from Sierra Leone, uses nature to set the scene of the novel and to help the reader understand how much his life has changed. After war plagues his life, Beah’s formally familiar hometown becomes all too unfamiliar to him. What used to provide him comfort ceases to do so with the increase of rebels that file into his town. Beah states that nature itself seems to know the chaos that is and that will further ensue. Just prior to rebels filing into his town, Ishmael recalls, “With the absence of so many people, the town became scary, the night darker, and the silence unbearably irritating. [...] The moon wasn’t in the sky; the air was stiff, as if nature itself was afraid of what was happening,” (Beah 22). Prior, Beah tells of stories that his grandmother used to tell him about the moon, which were all very comforting to him as a child....
Words: 430 - Pages: 2
