A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Question: How do you think Ishmael managed to be happy during the war despite everything that has happened to him?

In the memoir A long Way Gone Ishmael Beah states “When I was young, 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” (Beah 54). Throughout the war Ismael Beah survives many difficult situations, that make him think is it worth it to keep running. Ishmael Beah, always remembers what his dad said to motivate him to try and keep surviving the war. Ishmael Beah used adaptability, the kindness of others and bravery to overcome the adversities of the war in Sierra Leone.

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.

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

One of the cases that showed Ismael ongoing struggle with trust in people was when he was saved. This struggle was prominently seen when he was approached by his nurse who was trying to help him. He got help from the UNICEF because the lieutenant handed Ishmael to them. When the lieutenant gave him away to the UNICEF he felt betrayed because he was the only one Ishmael trusted. Ishmael nurse was Esther and everytime she tries to help him he wouldn’t cooperate. He didn’t trust the nurse because for his whole life he wouldn’t trust anyone because he thought if someone wants to friends they only want to exploit one another.

Beah had never a home, he had never a place where he went and felt safe. Ishmael was never loved, he was just used for the benefit of others. He had to survive all the physical and emotional pain. Beah overcame the psychological problems that the war left him and learned how to regain his humanity that the army had taken from him. Ishmael never lost hope, he always looked forward for a better future. He kept having hope even when he was brainwashed by the army and was forced to do bad things. He was always hoping to survive. Despite what Ishmael lived through, he regained his humanity by the help of others but mostly by his perseverance and personal strength he could vanquish his killing thoughts and become a confident person

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

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)

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

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 writing a memoir, the author does not always have to be truthful. As long as the author gets their point across, then that’s fine. Most authors, in every genre, have some kind of false information they put in to try and make their book appeal to their targeted audience. Sometimes it’s the opposite. Sometimes they might have a small detail that's true, but it's either not worth telling, or it doesn’t add to the point of the story.

I do believe pure evil exists, some people were born to be evil. Most times it isn’t the evil persons fault, it is what they are used to and what they have been taught their whole life. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah pure evil does exist. The infamous rebels murder little kids and rape women and they don’t see anything wrong with it. It is their job. The rebels are taught to be evil people. “The rebels were still in my village, angrily cursing and shooting their guns. At some point they pretended to be gone, and someone escaped and went back to the village. They captured him and I could hear them beating him. A few minutes later, gunshots were heard, followed by thick smoke that rose toward the sky. The forest was lit up by the fire that was set in the village” (Beah 35).

“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality” (Frida Kahlo). Is it true that when war or crime takes place, it is only the fear of reality that causes minds to create nightmares instead of dreams? Ishmael Beah is a historical figure that went through this feeling of deprivation and fear, where he could not tell apart a dream from reality. This appears frequently in his memoir, A Long Way Gone, which is about the civil war near his home, Sierra, Leone. In this war, the rebels were the killers, the ones much like the Nazi’s with no reason to kill. Beah loses his family, and gets brainwashed and loses everything all to become the little boy soldier that he once feared. Throughout, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys the message that sometimes the fear of reality makes it hard to tell apart a nightmare from a real situation.

I believe Ismeal is suppressing his feelings because he wanted his father to stay happy. I say this because in the text it said that “I had not seen my father for a while, as another stepmother destroyed our relationship again. But that morning my father smiled at me as he came up the steps. He examined my face, and his lips were about to utter something, when my stepmother came out. He looked away, than at my stepmother, who pretended not to see me. They quietly went into the parlor. I held back my tears and left the verandah". From this you would know that Ismeal Beah's father had a lot of wives, which means he had a lot of relationship issues, but still loved his son Ismeal. Even though the stepmother interfered in their relationship, she didn't like Ismeal as she pretended not to see him on the verandah. So based on that, I would say that most likely Ismeal suppressed his emotions because he thought that his father really loved his new wife, and wanted to keep her happy. So to keep his father happy and out of trouble Ismeal kept his own feelings