A Long Way Gone Freedom Analysis

Ishmael Beah is described as a pre-teen, with a love of rap and hip-hop music. He finishes as a drug-addicted killing machine, out avenging the death of his entire family. Before being rescued by a United Nations Program, and eventually fleeing to New York for rehabilitation, it is a tragic and harrowing tale that gives substance to the term ‘Boy Soldier’, that isn’t really understood in most cases. Ishmael gives a gentle portrayal of his life, before the war reached his small village and forever changed his life. Abruptly he becomes fugitive fleeing for his life and eventually into a corrupted teen.

Ishmael Beah was a boy from Sierra Leone who became a soldier in the country`s tragic civil war. He spent nearly all his childhood running away from the war and eventually ended up joining the army. During difficult times, Ishmael always held on to hope to continue his life’s journey. In A Long Way Gone, the theme is “Always have hope”, and is shown through Ishmael Beah’s hope for a better life, to find his family, and through the rehab staff`s hope for the boy soldiers.

Prompt #1 In A Long Way Gone, a book in which Ishmael Beah recounts the horrors he faced in his childhood in Sierra Leone, there are many examples of violence. There are many types of violence, including physical and psychological, but the violence leaves lasting effects on the both the community and on Ishmael. An example of physical violence in the book is when Ishmael’s young friend is killed while they are in their first fight. Ishmael experiences an internal change.

The Gateway to Freedom is an enticing novel that gives further knowledge of racial discrimination and the social inequality of blacks at the time of slavery and how the Underground Railroad combatted this through the different committees and activists of the time. This essay will focus on how the Underground Railroad affected family, economy and religion- the social institutions, those who operated the Underground Railroad were diverse and have different reason for following the abolitionist movement, and not all the committees are made equally.

A long way gone, memoirs of a boy soldier, by Ishmael Beah is a story of about a boy named Ishmael and how his ordinary life was suddenly changed by a civil war in his home country (Sierra Leone). He is separated for his family when the war starts and he is determined to find them. Ishmael is resorted to moving from place to place with different groups of boys/friends along the way. He faces challenges and life threatening situations everyday and does everything he can to stay alive. He has many close calls that almost result in death, but he is saved many times, usually due to the music tape that he carries in his jacket. Eventually ishmael is recruited to the army. The army changed Ishmael is a negative way. He is like a killing machine and uses drugs and eventually gets to a point where is addicted to them...From this point on Ishmael learns many lessons and goes through

Sierra Leone has been involved in a humungous amount of absurd human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. This detailed paper on the book, A Long Way Gone, set in Sierra Leone, will create interest by summarizing the memoir through descriptive examples and text on symbolism and imagery. The author of this memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is Ishmael Beah, it's difficult to believe that this is a true and harsh story. You will be learning about Ishmael's resilience and the horrible struggles he faced as a child soldier, while somehow continuing to have hope. Ishmael Beah, 12 at the beginning of this memoir, unexpectedly gets recruited into a time consuming war over blood diamonds, against the rebels as a young child. Ishmael is at a loss, since with his own eyes he viewed not only his loving family, but his whole village as it was horrifically torn down by the dangerous rebels. Ishmael is not physically lonely during the book, but he is emotionally

Ishmael Beah was a child of war in Sierra Leone. His memoir retells his experiences being in the Sierra Leone army. At just twelve years old, Ishmael Beah’s homeland was infested with Foday Sankoh’s brutal army, who would stop at nothing to take control of Sierra Leone’s diamond mines. Beah then comes to explain his experience as a soldier and his killing spree. Although some may argue that his experiences are too graphic, William Boyd hints that readers should read Beah’s memoir.

Ishmael Beah tells of the events of his youth and untimely loss of his childhood in his book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. In this heart wrenching recollection of his childhood, Ishmael tells of how the war in Sierra Leone changed his life and took him from the life he led as a child growing up with his family, hobbies, love of music and mischief, and left him a wandering orphan and later, a brutal soldier who’s daily activities consisted of killing, burning and thievery. Surviving the fate that befell him required resorting to tactics that skewed the basis of reality. The basis of Beah’s existence was sustained on the fact that he and the other soldiers around him maintained a daily struggle of tug of war between their traumatized

Ishmael Beah gives a first-hand account of life as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. He tells his story, one of thousands, of boys being driven from their homes in countries overrun with war. The unique life that Beah leads is much different than that of a child living in the United States or any country not in wartime, as he was forced to leave his family, kill countless rebels, and use dangerous drugs. This resulted in PTSD and a desire to inflict harm on others and himself. By telling his story, one soldier is able to open the eyes of people across the world to the devastating reality of the life of boys forced into the army.

“These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past” (Beah, 20). Ishmael Beah writes about his journey through Sierra Leone, in his book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. He describes how he escapes the Civil War of the 1990’s. The quotation is a simple way of describing Beah’s journey, such that during his time running from the war, he feels as if he is living in different places. In the novel, Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and freedom. The central theme will be proved by analyzing Beah’s cassette tapes, guns and his journey to New York City.

In the PBS series, “Freedom: A History of Us,” journalist Katie Couric narrates the story of The United States America. One of the episodes is dedicated to US’s history with slavery, titled, “A Fatal Contradiction.” Couric points out that although the US was founded on the ideal of personal freedom, that at that time in our history that wasn’t the case. Leading to the contradiction which is the inspiration for the title of the episode. The reality is that there were four million slaves in the United States, directly going against the concept of freedom that America was founded on.

Abraham Lincoln advocated “the great task” in his Gettysburg Address, but to reach this point where the entire nation would experience “a new birth freedom” seemed impossible.  Some factors that made it difficult for various segments of the population to fully realize and experience Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom” were African-American suppression and unjust wages and laws, and the displacement of Native Americans and working class Americans.  The federal government, along with many other organizations and individuals strove to improve the lives of those affected by post-Civil War chaos and corruption, but never fulfilled Lincoln’s vision.

America and other countries alike practice the right to free speech. In many ways, this is great. Not only does the amendment protect a citizen's right to free speech, but other things, such as the right to practice any religion or for the freedom of press. However, a free society is supposed to be for all. Therefore, freedom rules out imposing on the freedom of others. One is free to walk down the street, but not to keep others from doing so. Hate speech can impose on the freedom of others.

Would you like to live with a situation in which your all the freedoms are taken away from you, no freedoms for 2 years? Can you live in that situation? To live in that situation, it’s like we are going in the prison. There were many people who have been through that situation. There was a girl and her family who have been through that situation. In the same places, cannot go outside, cannot go to the school, the whole day in the same house, cannot talk or meet their friends. There was a family who went in the heading to be saved from Hitler, but they just did it for 2 years. Then after two years, one day someone knocked the door and someone from the family opened the door thinking that there was someone who was going to bring them some good news, but they saw that the person was Hitler and his guards, not someone who was going to bring them news. They all were quiet and were thinking of what is going to happen next?

To start with, I would like to discuss about the broad term of “freedom” in a democratic society. We have always defined freedom as an environment in which people resist evil and do what is right, and good without fear of any punishment or retaliation. It is justice balanced with compassion and it is a rule of law based on fundamental moral truths. It offers individuals equal opportunity to better and balance their lives morally, spiritually, intellectually, and economically.