A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah: An Analysis

War is devastating and tragic. It affects the daily lives of the people that are involved in the war. In the excerpt from, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, it displays a man who is dreaming about war. When the man wakes up, he lays sweating on the ground, remembering the painful memories that the dream has brought. In the end, the man realizes that from now on he will have to live in three worlds; his dreams, the experience of his new life, and memories from the past. Meanwhile, in the image, “In Times of War” by The New York Times, there is an angel on a cloud looking over the dreadful war. Then the angel walks away because the view of people dying makes it sick. The theme of the excerpt A Long Way Gone, and the image, “In Times of War,” is that the war brings death, seriously injured, and psychologically broken people.

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

Bang! Bang! “At that instant several gunshots, which sounded like thunder striking the tin-roofed houses, took over town. The sound of guns was so terrifying it confused everyone” (Beah 23). In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys his amazing journey through war and hardship as a child soldier. Sierra Leone--a country on the western coast of Africa--was embroiled in a bloody civil war in the 1990’s. Battles multiplied as bloodshed abounded and as a child in Sierra Leone Ishmael Beah was forced to survive, find food, and face unimaginable dangers. Running from the battle front was also a routine ordeal. At age 13 Beah was captured by the military and brainwashed into using guns and drugs. As a child soldier he perpetrated and witnessed a great deal of violence. At 15 he was rescued and taken to a rehabilitation center. With time and continual treatment, Beah was able to recover, to some extent, and reconnect with his Uncle Tommy who adopted him. He was later chosen to speak to the United Nations in New York City about his experiences as a child soldier. When he returned to Sierra Leone, war broke out throughout in the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and he managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone, he conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

Imagine being stuck in a civil war crisis all by yourself when you were 12 years old. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, an 12 year old , Ishmael Beah, becomes a soldier for the government to fight against the rebels. Beah lost both of his parents during the war. He was eventually put into rehabilitation after two years of fighting. Also, in an biography of John Clem, John joined the army as same age as Beah. John joined the army during the civil war in the United States. These two kids fought in a civil war at an age 12. Anyone can do anything even if you are too young because these two kids fought in a civil war.

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

This memoir about a boy soldier was very condescending. This was a true story for the author, Ishmael Beah and his life-changing events that occurred in his past. Ishamel Beah was a twelve year old African boy who lived in Sierra Leone Africa who fled attacking rebels due to a civil war in his country, who wandered into different villages trying to avoid the violence that seemed almost inevitable. He sauntered along with his brother and friends who scraped by day-by-day scavenging for food and struggled for survival. In the fifth chapter of the book, Beah describes the struggles he went through by saying, “…our joints weakened and ached” (p. 30). After days of traveling, Beah was eventually taken by the group of rebels and became one of

People face and put up a fight everyday against small challenges, big challenges, but they make it through. People face problems such as war, disease, and simple things like losing a game in sports. In the memoirs A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and Night by Elie Wiesel the overall idea expressed are going through many challenges. Both dealt with lots of pain, challenges that got into their way, as well as being around death all the time. The challenges Wiesel and Beah experience while living through war are dealing with pain, overcoming obstacles, and living with death.

Every person in the world goes through some life changing events, whether they are small or big. These changes shape a person's personality. Many life changing events are explained in Ishmael Beah’s book, A Long Way Gone. In the book he goes through many changes throughout his childhood. The story starts during a time in Sierra Leone where rebels are causing terror supposedly trying to make the government “better”. When really they seem to be causing more chaos than help. Ishmael Beah goes through some very life changing events throughout his journey, he manages to get out of these changes but they only seem to make his life worse. Losing the people that mattered most in his life, getting enlisted into the army, and becoming a part of a new

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men,” quoting historian Lord Acton. Before reading the quote, I never noticed the relationship between power and corruption in the real world. I thought of power as a form of recognition for hard work, that in turn is a positive outcome. After putting some thought into it, I realized my mistake

In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah the main idea is the loss of innocence and if it is possible to regain a part of that innocence. A synopsis of A Long Way Gone is that while Ishmael and his friends were out traveling as a part of a rap group their village was attacked by rebels. Once they flee their village they travel, together, from village to village fighting for survival. After wandering for a year Ishmael gets recruited into the war, on the side of the army to commit atrocious acts that he would never have dreamed of committing less than a year ago. Within a short amount of time in the army Ishmael was so corrupted by the systematic brainwashing and the drugs that killing became “as easy as drinking water.”

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael’s dream is a manifestation of his life when he is fleeing from war, experiencing and participating in bloodshed, and rehabilitating at the Benin House. Ishmael's dream first symbolizes his dream when he returns to a dark empty house. After Ishmael and Junior have an oyster picking competition, they head home. When Ishmael arrives, his house is desolate and pitch black. Everyone is gone, Junior included.

In the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah encounters many “kind-hearted” people throughout the war and after the war. These people who have a lot to lose if they help him still step into his life and lend a helping hand that saves Ishmael's life. In the book the man who helped Ishmael and his friends with their feet that were severely burnt and Laura Simms had a positive impact in Ishmael's life.

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.

Leaders in power use their authority and power for personal gain and attaining of fame. In many given societies it can be argued that those in power uses their power and authority to manipulate the law and attain popularity from a particular group. It is clearly demonstrated and argued that they don 't apply the law equally and with justice instead given race or people are favored by that law and others punished using similar law. When those in power makes mistakes, it has always been hard for them to be prosecuted by law. In

Jimi Hendrix once said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Contrasting values of morality between low and high levels of power create a divide. High positions of power present a status to keep. They would rather stick to the traditional system opposed to taking initiative with change, applying to their law-based thinking. This causes the world’s most influential beings to be bystanders. High-power people are on the same level as the kids who stand by and watch as a victim is being beaten up by a bully at school. Doing nothing is as bad as being the offender because when given the chance to stop a problem, high-power individuals allow it to occur. In contrast, people with little power consider their action’s impact through resolution-based thinking. Right and wrong is the deciding factor after analyzing situations thoroughly to make a decision. Rather than sitting back and watching injustice, they take charge; they simply don’t have much to lose. The levels of power majorly affect morality through law and resolution-based thinking and granting power to resolution-based thinkers to create a balance between the branches.