A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Ishamael Beah’s resilience allowed him to be adaptable to many different and difficult situations. In the beginning of the book Ishmael and his friends decide to go to Mattru Jong for a talent show. As they begin to go there they hear that the war has hit the mining areas. Ishmael and his friends knew that they may never be able to find their families again. Ishmael adapted very quickly and never gave up on trying to find them. “For more than three hours, we stayed at the Wharf, anxiously waiting and expecting to see our families or to talk to someone who had seen them.” (Beah 10) They never heard any news of them. Ishmael, Junior, Talloi begin to travel back saying goodbye to their friends. Ismael and they boys saw their first look, at what the war was about. They saw blood everywhere, parents carrying their dead children and people in pain. As Ismael, Junior and Talloi traveled

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.

Ishmael Beah is the protagonist in A Long Way Gone who was forced out of his village due to a war that broke out in his country. He had to hide in the woods and run from village to village seeking food and protection. Surviving the war seemed nearly impossible and throughout his journey saw soldiers do terrible things to innocent people that left him traumatized. Eventually he too was forced into becoming a solider and his life depended on killing; “kill or get killed” (Beah 126).

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, 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 the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

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)

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

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.

Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the aspects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation with war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as young boy and the many issues he faces while living in

Ishmael Beah fought a war that was very tense against the rebels which made everyone depressed. Ishmael the author of the book A Long Way Gone was fighting a war against the devilish rebels who change everything in his life. Beah does justify his actions because he wants to get back at the rebels for killing his family. They are justified since his family and friends were killed by the rebels, he basically was forced into becoming a child soldier to fight the rebels from destroying and killing and he witnessed his own village being destroyed.

Ishmael Beah: Child Soldier Many children in countries like Sierra Leone are surrounded by war since they were young. They grow up in a community where playing outside and being able to roam around is unknown. A majority of children in societies like Sierra Leone are brainwashed from a young age and sent to war as soon as they are strong enough to hold a gun. Ishmael Beah is a heroic figure in the Sierra Leone community, not only did he survive the brutality of war but was able to overcome his obstacles and is now able to advocate for ending children in war.

In the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah writes down a few stories he heard from his grandmother or from his friend Musa. One tale he tells us about is the “wild pigs”(p.53). In this tale, there is a hunter who hunts wild pigs. The hunter has magic and would turn himself into a boar. He would trick and lead the herd of wild boars to the forest.

Beah survived, but did you know in the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma? (child-soldiers.org) Though the books pages are covered in vital details about Beah’s life, the scene in the beginning of the book

Ishmael Beah was an ordinary twelve year old boy from Sierra Leone, until one night changed his entire life. The author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy soldier is Ishmael Beah himself because he wanted to portray his life journey for readers to understand what life is like for children fighting to survive during warfare. Also, going through trauma is never easy, but however it's one of the only ways people can learn from their mistakes and prevent them from happening in future generations. It's best for people to speak up about their experiences like Elie Wiesel did in writing Night so no one ever doubts anything that actually happen. This young teenage boy converts into this cold blooded killer into a person committing himself to the survival of others Ishmael Beah transformed from an ordinary twelve year old boy, into an enraged killing soldier and then to a man that speaks up for children affected by these wars.

Ishmael Beah's 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone, tells the story of a boy who's not so lucky. The book records his real-life experiences as a 12-year-old caught up in a bloody civil war in his home country of Sierra Leone. When his village is attacked by rebel fighters, Ishmael loses his home and family. He's forced to wander around looking for food, hiding in the woods and trying to avoid getting gunned down by soldiers.