A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah Summary

Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A long Way Gone, is very descriptive and has a very effective way of painting a picture in the reader’s mind of what he went through as a boy soldier. Throughout the memoir, Beah used quite a few statements that impacted me emotionally, on a personal level. His vivid detail, word choice and how personal, yet professional he kept his writing led me to understand how exactly the war affected him, and everyone else who lived, and lives, in Sierra Leone.

After Ishmael was taken from the front lines of the civil war he was takin to UNICEF’s Benin Home where he was to be rehabilitated. The Benin Home was a place specifically designed to rehabilitate former child soldiers like Ishmael. The home and its counselors used many techniques for rehabilitating the kids. In an article about rehabilitation programs in Africa the author states, “The trauma-counseling training workshop, which can range from a few days to several weeks, typically offers participants a combination of lectures, discussions, role-plays… game sports and expressive therapy techniques, and other forms of active methods of treating war trauma can be introduced” (Dridi). One of the counselors at the Benin Home, Esther, used expressive therapy to treat Ishmael’s war trauma. Esther gave Ishmael a rap cassette as a gift and Ishmael said, “When I unwrapped it, I jumped and hugged her” (Beah 154). Esther gave this gift because before the war Ishmael and his friend used to perform rap songs together, Esther knew that giving this gift to Ishmael would help him reconnect with his past as a normal child. Esther was constantly caring about Ishmael and he was starting to do the same, “I had become very fond of Esther, but I refused to show it… Whenever she left, though, I would watch he go” (Beah 168). Ishmael now cares about people, which is a big step for a person who used to viciously kill people to start caring about someone. All in all, Esther has helped turn a vicious child soldier into a normal kid that is capable living life with happiness and caring about

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.

The impact of war can have devastating effects on people and the way they live their life. A book by Ishmael Beah titled, A Long Way gone, tells a story about how war has had an impact on him and his way of life. The book takes place in Sierra Leone during the time the RUF had tried to overtake the government. The RUF and the other side of the war got their soldiers by brainwashing kids usually around ten or twelve and had them fight for their side. The RUF was ruthless and did unspeakable things to innocent people and would usually in some cases give drugs to their kids. Ishmael fits the role of both a victim and a victimizer because of what the war and the RUF soldiers had did to him and what he has done to

To Explain, Ishmael Beah describes how in rehabilitation he doesn’t trust civilians. To demonstrate, Ishmael describes an uncle of his to Leslie and a few days later Leslie comes back with a man that Ishmael describes, but Ishmael doesn’t think it’s his uncle when he states, “What if he is just some man pretending to be my uncle? I thought. The man let go of me. He was crying, which is when I began to believe that he was really my family…” (Beah 172). To explain, This man is definity Ishmael’s uncle because there is no way he would have gone with Leslie if he did not know Ishmael. Ishmael doesn’t believe that this man is his uncle because he never met his uncle, and he only trusts people he knows. So to prove it he cried because the only time Ishmael saw a man cry was when a man had lost their family. This creates the effect that allows readers to really understand the change he went through in the army. After all, being brought into a new family has severely impacted Ishmael’s life, same as losing his first family and being part of the

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be in the center of a war as an adolescent or how the people who experienced war feel after it all ends? Well, Ishmael Beah is an activist and writer, but also was a child soldier in a war in Sierra Leone. He didn't have a choice other than to join the army if he wanted to survive. Due to the war in Sierra Leone, Beah faced many hardships that impacted his life in a negative way.

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 in civil war, and throughout the country, battles multiplied as bloodshed abounded. Being captured by the military at a young age, he had no choice but to become a soldier. Beah was forced to learn how to survive, find food, face unimaginable dangers and run from the battle front. He fought in battle for a prolonged time before being taken to a rehabilitation

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.

A Long Way Gone tells the story of a boy residing in Sierra Leone who loses his innocence at a young age and manages to overcome his traumatizing events through story telling. In Ishmael Beah’s riveting memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah explores the idea that reminiscing upon joyful memories and loved ones when undergoing distress, allows children to be able to recover from their loss of innocence through the use of imagery, foreshadowing, and flashbacks. Evidently, Beah is seen throughout the story recalling every childhood memory to aid him through survival.

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.

1. Man v.s. Society One challenge that Ishmael Beah faces throughout the novel A Long Way Gone was trying to escape the war while also searching for his family. The source of this hardship Ishmael faced was the civil war between the Sierra Leonean government and the RUF (Revolutionary United Front), or rebels. On Pg.23 Beah writes, ”No one was able to think clearly...

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.”

A Long Way Gone     Unlike most subjects, war has effects on so many parts of someones life. War comes with the cost of mental, physical, and overall emotional health. A Long Way Gone is a memoir that was wrote by a boy soldier, Ishmael Beah. The war in Sierra Leone started in March of 1991.

Ishmael Beah was only a child he was faced with the horror of war. People are rarely presented with an unique situation that presents themselves with the only options of life and death, though for people who are unfortunate enough to have been placed in a similar situation are able to understand the vast negativity that consumes their life after witnessing such horrific events. As if the impossible became possible Ishmael had hope and light throughout him that granted him to fabricate an abundance of positivity. As Ishmael treated the circumstance with positivity most would have perceived the circumstance as the epitome of a destroyed life. When Ishmael’s life of living in war and murderous rebels he had the ability to use his gained positivity

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir “A Long Way Gone”, Beah symbolizes his state of fear and defeat, and Sierra Leone’s state of annihilation through strong images of nature. Specifically, Beah walks through a silent village in Sierra Leone and elucidates that he “was scared when the wind blew, shaking the thatched roofs… Not even a lizard dared to crawl through the village. The birds and crickets didn’t sing” (46). Clearly, Beah explains that the birds and crickets do not sing and lizards do not crawl in the village and without either action both animals are far from the norm. The imagery of the animals portrays that Sierra Leone is living in harsh conditions because they have no freedom since the rebels are taking over the country and destroying it.