A Long Way Gone: Negative Effects On Ishmael's Life

Cocaine, a narcotic drug that took the entire world by storm in the 1980’s, has continued to find it’s way into countries all over the world. The drug is a highly addictive stimulant that is extracted from the leaves of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. It comes in two main forms, powder and crystalline, also known as “crack” (“Cocaine Use and Its Effects”). Although the short term effects of cocaine seem somewhat harmless, the long term effects are devastating and have ruined the lives of many users. The short and long term effects of cocaine can be seen on Ishmael Beah, and his companions in the novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

”At first she just listened to me, and then gradually started asking questions to make me talk about the lives I had lived….‘None of these things are your fault,’ she would always say…I heard that phrase from every staff member--and frankly I had always hated it--I began that day to believe it.(164)” Ishmael Beah was a 12-year-old boy living in Sierra Leone at the beginning of the book. Sierra Leone was having a war which concluded too many people dying, and running trying to survive. Ishmael Beah joined the war from being 13 years old to 15 years old, he was drugged to have more energy and brainwashed to have the mindset to kill. Ishmael Beah uses characterization in order to show how Ishmael struggles to change from a child trying to survive, to a drugged ruthless soldier who must recover in rehabilitation.

The book Ishmael, which was written by Daniel Quinn, is an adventure for the human mind and for society as a whole. Throughout the book Quinn explores many factual scientific principals, but the intent of the book is not to give one a lecture on science. The intentions of Quinn are to discuss and examine the beginnings and also the history of our ecologically dominating culture in which we live in. In this book, Ishmael is a telepathic, highly educated gorilla who explores with his fifth pupil the stories of the Takers and the Leavers. The Takers is a society in which man has freed himself from living day to day, through this wondering if he will be able to find food tomorrow. Takers believe that through technology they can

As Ishmael was on his own wandering through the forest feeling scared, He through “Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive” (Beah 179). It show that Ishmael was a victim, because he was the last in his family to survive. He has no real family out their. He is on his owne at a very young age. A victim is a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. And Ishmael was harmed by an event. He had his family die before him because of the attacks on the village. He is a victim. After being forced into the war Ishmael traumatically said “It took several months before I was able to realm how to sleep without the aid of medicine. But even when I was finally able to fall asleep, I would

One profound way of combatting drug usage is to continue educating the youth and public on the fatal risks of utilizing drugs. Another aspect that the film did not touch upon is the drug policies and issues in other countries. Most of the world’s narcotic painkiller market is based in the United States, so there could be stronger laws introduced to limit who is able to access these strong pills. Moreover, countries such as Spain, have legalized most drugs, and have since seen a decrease in the usage of these drugs. These measures could be applied in the United States, and the black market where profit is made on these drugs would dissipate. Furthermore, these substances could be highly taxed like cigarettes, and made limited so that they become less accessible to the public. While recovery is a lifelong process for those already addicted, America can save the lives of tomorrow by getting the drugs out of the hands of first time

One of the most detrimental and addictive narcotics in the world today is cocaine. Cocaine dates back as early as 3000 BC. Ancient Incas used the coca leaves to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air. Native Peruvians in the 1500’s chewed the plant strictly for religious ceremonies. Andean Indians are believed to chew the leaves of the coca plant to increase their energy for work while decreasing their hunger and pain. It wasn’t until 1859 when a German chemist Albert Niemann successfully extracted the narcotic from the coca leaf. In the 1880’s, it was freely prescribed by physicians for “maladies as exhaustion, depression, and morphine addiction and was available in many patent medicines” (“Cocaine”), until users and doctors began to realize its dangers and side effects. While it was not fully understood at the time, cocaine has many devastating and lasting effects on the user.

The most common similarity between the use of drugs in the two societies is the purpose of the drug is use. This motive is for escaping reality. In Brave New World, all citizens in the society take “soma” whenever they are stressed or emotional. This medication keeps all negative thoughts off a person’s mind, basically creating a blindness to everything around them that is corrupt. Linda, one of the characters in the book who was from the Brave New World but lived with the savages, shows a little bit of how soma is used in today’s society when she becomes alcohol dependent. When she no longer had access to soma, she turned to alcohol (also referred to as “mescal” in the novel) as an escape from all the atrocious things she had to experience at the savage reservation (Brave New World 125). In today’s society people, especially young people, use alcohol and other drugs to mask the unhappiness they have in their lives. Teenagers consider

Drugs such as Marijuana and Cocaine are prevalent during his time at the camp, and

Drugs and alcohol can be used as a depressant or as a stimuli but one thing is certain is that they help forget who you are and what you are doing in life. They keep you away from thinking. Duke and Gonzo were afraid of thinking. They did not like where their lives were headed so they did drugs and got drunk. Ether is a drug they used and one the main advantages of it is that it “makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel... total loss of all basic motor skills: blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue – severance of all connection between the body and the brain” (19). This drug allowed them to stop thinking about their life. It cuts the connection and your body is just floating and that is it. They are so afraid of the future that they do not want to think about it. The drugs and alcohol also keep themselves from feeling. Duke wondered what would happen

The ancient greeks have taught humans many lessons that have shaped the lives and actions of people in today’s society. These lessons can be found everywhere; in greek myths, plays, or in books that were influenced by the ancient greeks. The lessons taught in these stories are shown everyday in the actions of the people in this world. There is a countless number of things that have been taught to us by the greeks. One of, if not the most important one is, having hubris or hubristic qualities inevitably leads to consequences.

The ancient Greeks have taught humans many lessons that have shaped the lives and actions of people in today’s society. These lessons can be found everywhere; in greek myths, plays, or in books influenced by the ancient Greeks. The lessons taught in these stories can be seen everyday in the actions of the people in this world. There is a countless number of things that the Greeks have taught us. One of, if not the most important one is, having hubris or hubristic qualities inevitably leads to consequences.

The whiteness that Ishmael refers to as a symbol of “significant of gladness” (1469) is only made so through social construct and repetition. In order to prove his repulsion of Moby Dick’s whiteness, Ishmael establishes the long history of the symbolism for the color white, beginning with the “royal pre-eminence” (1469) of the color. He references the “grand old kings of Pegu” (1469) who found the greatest value in kingship as being the “Lord of the White Elephants” (1469) and “Cæsarian heir[s]” (1469) who had selected white to be their imperial color. By selecting this hue to hold such importance and that was carried to the next generation, the Pegu kings and Cæsarian heirs gave the color meaning for superiority and nobility. White has

Have you ever desired to save the world? That’s what the narrator in “Ishmael” wanted to do when he was younger. The narrator was searching for a teacher and he found one decades later in an unexpected form in a strange place. Upon finding an ad in the paper for a teacher seeking pupils, the narrator curiously decides to check out this supposed guru bent on preaching love and acceptance to the world. When he arrives at a run-of-the-mill office building, the narrator is confused,but they are even more startled to find that beyond a pane of glass in an otherwise empty room sits a gorilla.

Not only were drugs common, but they were also distributed by the government. The drug that is used throughout the book is called Soma. A hallucinogen described as the “perfect drug”. It is used for escaping moments of dissatisfaction with the benefits of being calm, relaxed and having 10 hour long highs. The citizens have been conditioned to love the drug and are enslaved by it

The character in the short story Moby Dick , Ishmael, wants to leave his everyday life and go to sea as a whaler. Ishmael arrives in a city called Bedford there he stays in a hotel for one night and has to share a bed with a Harpooner but Ishmael is frightened of the harpooner and thinks that he is a “ Savage cannibal.” The captain of the ship that, Ishmael is on, calls the crew out onto the deck and shows them a one ounce Gold nugget and nails it to the mast of the ship and says “ that the first man to sight the great white whale, known to the sailors as Moby Dick, would get the gold.” ( Herman Melville) Later in the story a horrible storm arose one night and lightning struck the mast and frightened the crew, the crew thought that this might