A Long Way Gone Analysis

“I hate getting flashbacks from things I don't want to remember. ”“In violence, we forget who we are.” these are some of the quotes that come to mind when I think of the violence and the consequences and after effect that Ishmael experience in the novel. Throughout the novel Ishmael encountered many deadly and violent events. From his experiences I have learned that the consequences and aftereffects of violence makes a person feel as though they are losing himself and/ or as though they are dying a little on the inside, many lives may or may have been taken, are some of the lesson I learned from his experiences.

One of these experiences is when he was about to see his family, then the village they were staying in was attacked by rebels. His mother, father and two brothers were trapped in their house and slowly burned to death. This happened only a few weeks after their former home was attacked and raided by rebels. But it is a better fate then some because one of his now deceased, friend’s 3 sisters were raped over and over again. while their father was knocked out for trying to defend them and their mother being forced to watch. The rebels took the girls with them. Ishmael's fate was not much better than the 3 girls for he became a child soldier: traumatized and hopped up on drugs and told to “avenge” his family by killing every rebel and snorting cocaine until he no longer felt anything. Remember war is not all honor and glory, it is suffering, death and pain. In more ways than

To start with, the story begins when Ishmael and his rap-passionate friends are all headed to Mattru Jong for a talent show, “I left home with Junior...and Talloi...to go to the town of Mattru Jong, to participate in our friends talent show” (Beah, p.6). As one can see, he was just a vulnerable, naive boy before mayhem broke loose around him. Moreover, Ishmael endures an extremely perilous adventure in the jungle while fleeing war. But even though he evaded real danger for a while, he was never able to elude his imaginary fears, “I felt as if somebody was after me. Often my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles. Everything felt awkwardly brutal. Even the air seemed to want to attack me and break my neck” (Beah, p.49). According to this situation, Ishmael was nothing more than a scared little boy who is simply running for his life. Even though this is a good point, it fails to account for the multiple massacres Ishmael contributed to,“...I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and shot more people. I shot everything that moved...” (Beah, p.119). How can one be innocent and naive after picking up a gun and using it against a human being? At the end of the day, guns don’t kill people, people kill people and this is exactly what Ishmael did. He killed. And killed. And

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah encourages the opinion that everyone is responsible for his/her own actions in all cases. Beah proves this opinion to be true through death, thievery, and violence.

As he described it, “it was an aspect of being in the war. Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything” (Beah, 29). He was only twelve years old when his whole world changed, He had seen “heads cut off by machetes, smashed by cement bricks, and rivers filled with so much blood that the water had ceased flowing” (Beah, 29). Ishmael had no other choice but to defend himself and his country by becoming a boy soldier against the rebels.

“If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen...” (pg. 54). Throughout the course of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, we familiarize ourselves with the exceptional hardships that Ishmael has experienced as a child soldier, in Sierra Leone, and what actions he takes to overcome them. Despite the fact that Ishmael has been through these devastating hardships and that he became the fear that he himself feared, Ishmael is able to instill hope and keep the reader going through the themes of powerful memories, nature and redemption. He does this through the use of powerful memories that contrast the fear and danger of the war with the remembrance of the beauty of life. Furthermore, nature leaves the reader striving

In the story, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael’s life experiences while escaping the war show how everything in life should be cherished, because one day those great features are there but they can easily be taken away. Ishmael Beah has experienced the traumatizing effect of war and how it can tear someone apart and morph them into a completely different person. This happened to Ishmael himself. He was brainwashed and his mind was molded into believing that revenge is the answer to the deaths of his family members. This essentially is why he puts his safety and wellbeing at risk. He goes from being a twelve year old boy who heard stories of the war, but never imagined it chasing after him, to running away from this inescapable war only

In the book, A Long Way Gone, there is an array of different tones. The author uses them to shine light on the central theme and main idea of the story. The tone is important because it emphasizes the emotion of the text and the story being told. The author, Ishmael Beah, who is also the main character in the book has had a rough life. He grew up in the city of Mattru Jong, which is in the country of Sierra Leone. War had swept over the land changing everything and everyone. Beah was forced into being a child soldier at the age of twelve. By looking at the book, A Long Way Gone, one can see that Beah was put through things that no person should go through and it has shaped his entire world, with death, loss, and pain.

“He never said anything back then and didn’t get upset by what they said.” (Beah, 2007, p. 91) Living freely, this man is a spirited human, not suffering but taking the pain. Pleasant people in ‘A Long Way Gone” are the selfless, secure souls. Next, on page 119, Ishmael remarks “I was not afraid of the lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.” At the front lines of his first battle as a soldier, trained to fight and through with living fearfully. The water rises and Ishmael builds his wall. Also, on page 187 Ishmael utilizes brutal honesty with his interviewer, never questioning himself, “I meant what I said and it was not a funny matter.” Embodying the confidence of someone choosing to stay when everyone else runs, surviving the war. In conclusion “I Lived” by OneRepublic (2013) the pinnacle of connections between the real world and literary devices in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (2007), reflecting the significance of courage and all it can get you

Ishmael Beah had a really tough life throughout his childhood and teenage years. In his literary work, A Long Way

Based on Ishmael’s many MANY violent experiences, it turns out violence doesn't just affect one person or just have one victim. It affects not only the victim, it affects the people that witnessed it, the victim's’ family/relatives,the victims’ friends and community members. It may not affect them directly but it’d still hurt them emotionally and psychologically because they have lost a friend, brother or sister, or child. In this tale, violence never had only a sole person affected, it was always a chain reaction/spider web of people affected. Violence causes chaos and a feeling of unease and fear among communities and villages even miles aways. Violence even causes concern among communities oceans away (for example the United States with

In Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, War, Survival and Harsh conditions show that all people are capable of evil. This theme is often shown throughout the story and proven through Ishmael’s actions and the horrific cruelty of rebel soldiers who were only children. Being only 12 Ishmael and his friends were stuck searching abandoned villages for food after spending many nights sleeping in the wilderness. Eventually the only way they could survive was stealing food and so they did. Beah explains and tries to justify his methods of survival when he wrote “That night we were so hungry that we stole people’s food while they slept. It was the only way to get through the night.” (29) This quote portrays that how no matter who you

In A Long Way Gone, the author applies the device of polysyndeton to list out the movies that the boys watched in order to fuel their rage and violence. It’s obvious that the films influence the boys due to the fact that the soldiers are willing to do anything to watch them. The polysyndeton is shown in the novel when Ishmael lists out the films he and the other soldiers watch: “War movies, Rambo: First Blood, Rambo II, Commando, and so on, with the aid of the generator or sometimes a car battery.” (Beah, pg 121.) The excerpt from the novel indicates that the soldiers want to watch these films using any means possible. The films create a heavy influence on them through the violence shown. Since the films create such an influence, this causes

In general I think never giving up is quote that consistently came to my mind while reading A Long Way Gone. Throughout the story Ishmael was a strong young man that never gave up. Even after his village had been attacked with his family in it, he still believed that he could find shelter and that his family could still be living. Even after he knew his family died he still had the bravery to go on with his journey to safety. S a solider he killed soldiers to get revenge and to save himself and others. Later on the lieutenant assigned Ishamel and a few others to a center where they could go back to school. They didn’t know where they were going or how life without being a solider would be. I thought this quote was significant because though

The trait that Ishmael has is loss and he possesses that because he lost his family in the war. “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn't feel any better. (PG 122)” Beah sums up his motivation for becoming an effective killer in the Sierra Leone civil war. He expresses his pain in a raging hatred way against the rebels due to the loss of his loved ones. “I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for. I have no family, it is just me. No one will be able to tell me stories about my childhood (PG 167)”. Ishmael reveals this to Esther as he slowly begins to cope with his