A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

During the civil war in Sierra Leone great numbers of people died and if they survived, traumatic images keep them company for the rest of their lives. Ishmael Beah, who was a child at the time, had to face the horrors of war. Beah’s innocence was stolen and replaced with the mentality of a soldier. Fortunately, he survived long enough to be rescued by UNICEF agents. He is rehabilitated but those memories cannot be forgotten and it is impossible for him to have another childhood.

In a Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah demonstrates Innocence within his adolescence to illustrate the importance of music and how it ties in with the common desire of freedom. The loss of innocence determines the perceptions of the world and the decisions made, ultimately resulting in happiness.

“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.

If I could, I would give Ishmael a dozen of other awards after his story as a boy soldier, but I think this award suits him best. A Long Way Gone tells the story of a young boy who experiences war for years without any family and only the hope of living to find them one day.

Rotting corpses and a river of blood is something that we wish no person would have to see and hope that children would be far from included in these bloody wars. There is no hiding from the fact that children not only in Africa but in the Middle-East as well will experience this sight everyday. Written by Ishmael Beah, “A Long Way Gone” shows whether they are child soldiers or fleeing refugees every passing corpse will continue to scar their minds. The dead oppress these kids more and more to the sight of massacred villages until they’re surprised to see what used to be an average village to them. A village that is breathing life not breeding

Imagine your parents being killed when you are at a young age, then having to be forced to carry a weapon and kill or be killed. This was a story of Ishmael Beah, as told in the A Long Way Gone.

All over the world, there are huge battles, wars, and genocide. Many people lose their families and everything they have. They are forced to be a slave, and to do things they do not want to do. It is possible that people who have been exposed to all this circumstances tell the world their experience, and how to heal their wounds. According to the articles, “Killing Fields Survivor Documents Cambodian Genocide” by Jennifer Hyde and “Why the Arts Are as Important as Hospitals in Cambodia” by Emely Wight, they both talk about a person who has been through a huge trauma such a genocide. Individuals and societies who suffered a trauma such a genocide can heal by looking for justice and music.

During the Holocaust, Jews in the ghettos and concentration camps used music to keep hope alive and to fuel spiritual resistance, despite the Nazi’s use of music as another weapon in their murder and dehumanization of the Jewish people. Even as the Jews struggled to endure the horrible conditions of ghetto life, musical performance continued, both in secret and in Nazi sanctioned performances. Music encouraged hope in the camps as well, and offered comfort to many Jews during their final hours. However, the Nazi’s sought to use ghetto music as a propaganda tool and concentration camp music to dehumanize and pacify their victims. Nonetheless, many Jews found comfort and hope within the music that they continued to make and listen to, despite the horrors that surrounded them.

The average person is exposed to about 5 hours of music a day, but have you ever thought about how music exposure has the ability to bring people back together? During the civil war, nearly everyone’s life was impacted by music, whether they heard it constantly or had family members who played instruments. Music had an effect on everyone living in the era and has a lasting effect on how we live today. Music was an important aspect that affected how people lived during the civil war era.

Music is a very important part of many people’s lives today. Music has the power to make or break any situation. Many of the uses of music can lead to different responses. Music can put one in a good mood for a party, it can comfort one in hard times and struggles, and it can bond two or more people together who would not otherwise become close. Music can and has changed many lives through the years. The art form dates back to as far as mankind has been around. Since the beginning man has made music and it has evolved with man throughout the years. Music has gone through many stages ranging from plucking strings strung across two boards to pressing keys on a piano to make electronic sounds. Each and every form of music has touched many lives

For Beah music was a key factor in not giving up and closing himself off from the world around him. Music provided and encouragement to the relationship between Beah and Nurser Esther, which helped Beah confined in the nurse about the nightmare he been having. In the dream, Beah family disappear leaving him by himself, trap in the darkness; the nurse response was the same that Beah had heard thousand of time, it wasn't his fault, but for the first time Beah started to believe it. At this stage, Beah started showing a transformation because music gave Beah a connection to people and life. Since Beah was a child soldier and carried burdens, music lightens that weight. Music provided courage to remember the pass even if it was painful, which leads

Imagine living in a place with a distant community and a remote connection with everyone.That place is a world without music. Music brings people together because it is a constant reminder that no matter your gender, race, religion, and culture, people everywhere are the same in spirit and in heart. Whether it is through the rhythm of a beat or lyrics from a song, music creates a bonds and trust with others. Hans Christian Anderson once stated, “Where words fail, music speaks”. For instance, today’s generation of teenagers use music as a source of comfort and also a temporary solution for depression. Young adults use the underlying meaning of lyrics to relate with one another which creates trust, builds friendships, and relationships. Artist’s

There were many times where the overwhelming pressure to bring my family pride had taken a toll on my mentality, which resulted in me turning to music to cope with my struggles. Realizing that music had helped me in ways I’ve never even imagined inspired me to see what it could do for others, and how it can be beneficial to those who struggle in various ways. Shortly after this revelation, I began to take in interest in music therapy and its ability to help an immense number of people. If I could create music to help those in need, then I could live life contently

Everyone listens to music for different reasons, whether it be for comfort, serenity, or to brood. But regardless of what reason one has to listen to music, the main reason people enjoy it is because it allows them to connect to the world around them. In A Long Way Gone, a memoir by Ishmael Beah, music reoccurs throughout the novel as a unique mode of storytelling. Everyone’s story can be told in the form of a song. Everyone can relate to the ever-present threat of life and death and as such this creates universal themes that binds the world together. Through the themes of hope, nature, and companionship, Beah’s struggle through the Sierra-Leone civil war in A Long Way Gone connects him to “If We Hold On Together,” an R&B song by Diana Ross.

In When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the soundscape of healing and reconciliation (2010), John Paul Lederach, together with his daughter Angela Jill, study the use of metaphors from sound to foster new pathways of conflict transformation and healing. They ask the question “how do people express and then heal from violations that so destroy the essence of innocence, decency and life itself that the very experience penetrates beyond comprehension and words?” (2010, p. 17). In the Lederach’s perspective, aural properties found in music, poetry, story-telling and creative dance, with their regard for repetition and capacity to resonate diverse sounds, offer alternative facets for conflict transformation and broadminded dialogue. These ideas, linked with aural and sonic metaphors, give voice and sound to societies needing to express the atrocities incurred at the hand of violence. Together, the Lederach’s propel the reader to envision another approach to social healing in settings of protracted violence.