A Long Way Gone Analysis

Humanity constantly brings life and destruction to the world every day. In the novel A Long Way Gone, the protagonist, Ishmael Beah, constantly endures simple acts of charity, even in the cruelest environments of that time; however, what goes around comes around. Even though Beah does receive a minor variety of kindness, he still encounters the face of death everywhere he goes due to mankind’s hostility, whether it be in a deserted village or the everlasting depths of the forest. Throughout the majority of the novel, readers can find themselves praying for a miracle for Beah in addition to knowing about the violence of mankind. For the human condition project, groups are to cite a minimum of ten quotes from both the novel and previous articles

His memories show the readers parts of his past before having to flee for his life or even before, he was recruited into the army. “When I was very little my father used to say, “If you are 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”” (54) Beah claims shortly after this flashback that the words of his father are what kept his spirit alive after every horror that he had witnessed. Beah had joined a group of boys during his journey and had said, “Our innocence had been replaced by fear and we had become monsters” (55). During the time, the sight of seven boys all together caused fear for anyone the group of boys came by. After all the boys could have been spies or rebels. “Fear is healthy…Panic is dangerous” (Chasing Mavericks). Throughout the memoir, the boys are attacked by panic of many people. Going back on

While being face to face with war, Ishmael illustrates what he, as well as his life, has become, “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector and my rule was to kill or be killed…” (Beah, p.126). With these declarations, the reader can clearly comprehend his lack of innocence and empathy. He has become a unfeeling, cold-blooded soldier trained to kill or be killed and survival is his ultimate goal. Later on in the book, the reader is informed of the barbaric scene that takes place in Benin Home, a rehabilitation center. When Ishmael arrives at this site, he ruthlessly interrogates a couple of his housemates “I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. 'Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?”(Beah, p.133). Undoubtedly, this is not normal behavior for a 15-year old and when he displays this conduct, it can be unquestionably said that Ishmael has lost all sense of innocence and emotion. In this section of his story, Ishmael is threatening to kill boys his own age, which shows how deviated he has become from his original character and sense. Both of these examples verify that Ishmael Beah in nowhere near the innocent, rap-enthusiast and family loving boy he once was. The child that was Ishmael Beah is now dead, and in his place stands a cold-hearted

Throughout the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael faces a plentiful amount of challenges and conflicts. In the book there are four main conflicts that Ishmael faces and overcomes. These conflicts include Ishmael running away from the war, his family, and his friends, Ishmael's entire family dying and him becoming a soldier at the age of 13, Ishmael going through rehabilitation, and Ishmael trying to move to a safer area when war meets Freetown.

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

Ishmael Beah was at the age of thirteen when his childhood and innocence was taken from him. For example, Beah says “My childhood had gone without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen”(30). It happened so quickly. He was frantic with worry. Beah was forced to join the Sierra Leone military. It was not until later he himself started to believe he has lost his innocence. At this young age he was killing the rebels that traumatized him purely to seek revenge and to survive. His hate for the rebels was very strong, “Whenever I looked at the 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

Although there are many tones in the book, there is an emphasise on the loss of humanity. The war caused people to lose everything that they once had.. Losing everything caused them to have a wary approach on anything that came into view. . “Someone had started a rumor of the seven boys…” (Beah 57). The people in the villages were scared of outsiders because of the pain they have caused. No one knew who to trust anymore. Beah used great tones to show how the people felt and while reading the book one can sort of imagine how the boys felt knowing this. In the book the author writes about how he approached a family swimming in the river. They were having fun and and trying to be normal and escape the horrors. Beah walked up to them and, “...all of them

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

Beah shows how poor leadership could have been the cause of war. Africa suffers from human rights violations which characterize the era of the civil war (Correa - Velez, Nardone, Knoetze 143). The civil war in Sierra Leone brought abrupt changes to children's lives due to the power of the Sierra Leone government. Beah goes on to say that “sometimes we were asked to leave for the war in the middle of the movie. We would come back hours later after killing many people and continue the movie as if we had just returned from intermission. We were always either at the front lines, watching a war movie, or doing drugs. There was no time to be alone or to think” (Beah 124). Beah explains that soldiers freedoms were taken away as they were asked to “leave” for combat often. This shows the abuse of power of the government of Sierra Leone as they revoked the freedoms of its citizens for war. Many believe that due to corrupt governance, child soldiers were not given the choice or option to become a soldier (Spencer 222). Beah finds that it’s “…not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it” (Beah 199). Beah discusses how he did not have any decision in “being a soldier” and is instead forced to. He further explains how he has to force himself to survive. Throughout the novel, Beah

Ishmael Beah, an African American boy, a human being, has been a victim of circumstance. More specifically, a victim of war and crimes against humanity. It is during this civil war, that he had to flee from his home village, Mogbwemo, and his family, due to a rebel attack. Though this was just the beginning as he traveled across the country, Sierra Leone, in order to escape the war. Eventually, he was caught in the village of Yele when the army or UNICEF forced him to become a boy soldier.

Secondly, Beah describes gruesome, fearful, and horrific times and scenes with the help of scenic narration. For example, Beah says, “I am pushing a rusty wheelbarrow in a town where the air smells of blood and burnt flesh. The breeze brings the faint cries of those whose last breaths are leaving their mangled bodies. I walk past them. Their arms and legs are missing, their intestines spill out through the bullet holes in their stomachs, brain matter comes out of their noses and ears.” This statement gives an excellent and direct impression of the brutality of the rebels. Conceivably, this could be labeled as a massive genocide in the way Beah retells it. A Long Way Gone is full of daunting scenes and bitter language. Ishmael Beah states, “Setting the body on the ground, I start to unwrap it, beginning at the feet. All the way up to the neck, there are bullet holes. One bullet has crushed the Adam’s apple and sent the remains of it to the back of the throat. I lift the cloth from the body’s face. I am looking at my own.” Beah shows powerful and visible emotion in the way he describes this person. When he says that he is looking at his own, that makes the reader feel as if Beah is describing a family member or a very loving friend. Although, the last portion of this quote is emotional, Beah still describes gruesomeness the Adam’s apple being

Does Ishmael Beah justify his actions with the story he tells in the novel A Long Way Gone? Ishmael Beah does not attempt to show that the stories he tells us in the novel are either the right thing or wrong thing to do. Instead, he shows us both side of his life. He doesn't tell us a single story, he shows all aspects of his life. One example of this is how he tells us about being brainwashed by the rebels and believing that his actions were the right thing to do during that time. A second example is about how Ishmael Beah tells us about his time when he was in rehab. One last example is that he shows us that he now has a safe life living with his uncle and cousins in sierra leone

In the poem “The Past” by Ha Jin, the narrator in the poem talks about his past. In the first stanza, he talks about how he accepted his past whether it was good or bad. His past is basically a part of who he is but if his past is forgotten or thrown away then he would lose his identity.

The novel presents the theme for the first time when the Smales move into July’s village hoping to find refuge to be safe once again. July’s people at first glance at the white family tend to disprove of the decision to give them residence, since they are worried of the power they once had to enslave Africans, and that it was not their duty to protect them when it was actually the Smales’ other white brethren’s duty. Reluctantly, the family had agreed to shelter them, yet this just showed that tragedies such as slavery, discrimination, and segregation had left a deep scar on the relationship blacks and whites in the era of the novel could have had. These tragedies do not stop their effects just here, when Maureen Smale (wife of Bamford Smale)

The Long Way home was written by David Laskin, a passionate reader who graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in literature and history. Laskin in recent years has been writing about non-fiction events in which people are thrown into situations they cannot control, such as war, horrific weather, and genocide. In The Long Way Home, Laskin did not hold back details from the reader. His focus on the details are what made the monograph so impactful, and with that, they give the reader a very good sense of what these individuals in past-time hardships had to deal with. The horrors of the immigration boats, coming to an America that was nothing like they were told it was, and the unimaginable mental destruction of war; All of these