A Long Way Gone And Invictus: Written Response

A long way gone by Ishmael Beah, attempts to evoke a powerful response from the leader, by using vivid descriptions to show how he has become emotionally traumatized by the acts of violence in the war. The reader then sympathizes with Ishmael and begins to understand the lasting and deep, emotional pain that Ishmael deals with on a daily basis.

In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, an experienced soldier was writing about his memories of the war. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone with his family, but one day it all changed. At the age of 12, Beah was taken by the Rebels to kill. His whole mindset changed during the war. However, when the war ended child soldiers were taken to a rehabilitation group, and it did help Ishmael go back the way he used to be before the war.

Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone and Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, both have an important war stories to tell to our generations. In Maus, we see a family portrait complicated by the legacy of the Holocaust, the bond of families are tested between Vladek, the survivor of the Holocaust and his son Artie, who is ultimately affected by the Holocaust as it reverberate through future generation. A Long Way Gone is a memoir of Ishmael Beah, afflicted by and forced to participate in the Sierra Leone Civil War as a boy soldier. Although they bear some superficial differences, the similarities between Maus and A Long Way Gone are remarkable.

The book A Long Way Gone, was an honest book. It showed the struggles of war and what it does to a person. The story of Ishmael Beah is a valuable one, full of love, struggle, family and violence. One of the things that is great about this book, is that it shows a clear progression of Ishmael’s character, from a sweet young boy, to a hardened young man You can see is innocence being slowly ripped away by the military, who forced him to smoke gunpowder and massacre villages. He is a real role model for kids who are struggling to get through something. If this boy can get through a war and survive, then you can get through this! The thing I didn’t like about it is the violence. They could have gotten away with not showing a baby being cut out

War impacts the lives of many people by taking away their families, homes, and old lifestyle in general. People suffer through loss of many valuable things that force them to live a new way that may be hard to adapt to. In the autobiography called A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he writes about his struggles to live through the civil war in Sierra Leone. The author, Ishmael, was very young when the war started. His village was attacked by the Rebels causing his family to run searching for safety and along the way they were split up. Ishmael had to find a way to survive on his own. Along his journey he was found by Africa’s military and forced to join the soldiers. Ishmael had to do many things he regrets while fighting for the military. Ishmael

A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.

In the introduction of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he writes, “There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a faraway and different land. It wasn’t until refugees started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country” (Beah 1). During this statement Beah says that he is completely oblivious to the war around him. These people living in Sierra Leone had adapted to the war to the point where their perception had been altered. With this memoir he shares his experiences and obstacles he faces throughout the war to become a beckon of hope in this despairing country. Ishmael uses his social skills, timely luck, and emotional strength, to find the courage to overcome these adversities and survive in and out of the war.

While living in Freetown he had a girlfriend who wanted to know about his past. He would not tell her what has happened to him, so she broke up with him. Nowadays he is more open to sharing his experiences, but only when necessary. He does not tell people what happened to him openly, it brings back bad memories from the war. Writing A Long Way Gone allowed Ishmael to become a bit more willing to recall his time in the war. Sometimes, the smallest things would trigger a bad memory for him. Now he is able to bring back the memories of the war without bringing back all of the pain those memories caused him. Writing allowed him to become a bit more open with his

The human behavior is one that will haunt humanity forever. A Long Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, is an original non-fiction story based on Ishmael’s personal experiences in warfare. But, shockingly, he witnessed warfare from the small eyes of his teenage years. Having to experience one of the worst things in history, at such a young age, is terrible. War, in this case or in any case, relates to both human condition and human nature. Human conditions, in short, are things that that defines the human existence (birth, death, etc.) Human nature, close to human conditions, are how humans act naturally to their environment and others. The theme of A Long Way Gone ties strongly with both of these with a passion. It describes war as an art, with human condition as a canvas and human nature to paint in the fine details. The question asked is what Ishmael Beah’s experience tells us about the meaning of the human being, and to answer we have to poke at some topics that we’ve covered. The answers to the sole question include the hypothetical existence of pure evil, the important keys of human social life, and how war affects one’s own mind.

I really enjoyed A Long Way Gone. Reading this type of book was new to me, because I wouldn’t typically choose a book like this for myself, but that did not make it any less of a great book to me. I cannot relate to the book of A Long Way Gone, because what Ishmael went through in his country is very likely to never happen to me. Though, I find it astonishing in many ways how such a young child went through such trauma so early in his life. I have noticed how the thought of Ishmael’s family was a driving force throughout the entire book. When the war first started and he was separated from his family, Ishmael always thought of them, their whereabouts and hoped to find them. Then, when he became a child soldier and killing became easy to him, his

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

Hope enables people to move on by providing the thought that maybe tomorrow’s events will be better than today’s. Hope is a theme that remains constant in every part of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael begins the novel optimistic, believing he will find his family again. This optimism is later lost when Ishmael is recruited by the army to fight against the rebels, causing him to become addicted to drugs and the thrill of killing. Three years after his recruitment, Ishmael is rescued by UNICEF-a group dedicated to rehabilitating child soldiers. During his rehabilitation, Ishmael discovers hope once more by relearning how to trust, love, and have the will to survive. The presence of hope throughout A Long Way Gone enables Ishmael to

Another way the theme, “Always have hope” is shown in A Long Way Gone is through Ishmael`s hope to find his family by keeping his will to live and the memories at the forefront. In Ishmael`s first account of war, his village was overturned by the rebels and his family was split up. Therefore, Ishmael and his friends were left to survive