A Long Way Gone Rhetorical Analysis

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, tells of the experiences in his intense journey through Sierra Leone during the outbreak of war. Beah had to learn to survive the harsh outcome of the war, resulting in the loss of those whom were close to him, family and friends, and trust in people. The book has a recurring theme of nature and the natural world. In the book, the world at night, as well as the moon, serves as both a safeguard and a bringer of bereavement.

Starting a calm day in Sierra Leone to surviving, and being trafficked into the army is what Ishmael Beah experiences as a child. A Long Way Gone is a memoir of a child soldier, Ishmael Beah, and the memoir shows the experiences he has throughout his childhood. Beah experiences trauma of the war just like all of the other child soldiers. Ishmael is one of the very little amount that survive the war. The three main themes in A Long Way Gone are the themes of survival, healing, and memory.

There is so much irony that happens in Beah’s life, it’s impossible to not feel sorry for him. For example, he says, “If we hadn’t stopped to rest on that hill, if we hadn’t run into Gasemu, I would have seen my family, I thought,”. (95) The story behind this quote is that Beah and the rest of his family has been split up for a while now. He then stops in a village and someone there tells him that his family is in the next village over and they were looking for him. As Beah travels to the next village, he meets Gasemu, someone from his old village, and Gasemu asks the boys to help him carry bananas. As soon as they get to a hill and can see the village, they hear gunshots. Beah runs down the hill, only to find everyone in the village already dead. It’s ironic how he was so close to seeing his family again but is minutes late because he stopped for Gasemu. Another example is when he says, “But instead of the usual sounds that brought the city to life, it was woken that morning by gunshots erupting…”. (202) In this quote, Beah is finally stable after being a soldier, and is living peacefully and happily because he is far away from the war. Ironically, the war ends up spreading to Freetown, where he is staying, even though it's not a typical spot for war. All these ironic things add to Beah’s terrible life. These ironic experiences were shared to show that life and society can be

A Long way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah is a memoir that exposes the reader to a part of the world a majority of people know almost nothing about. An area where life is cut short by conflict and a blatant disregard for the value human life. Where Mothers lose their sons, families lose their homes and people lose their sense of morality. Yet, through these struggles, the resilience of the human spirit and psyche is exposed. Ishmael, through many points in his life was challenged physically, mentally, emotionally and was extremely close to being defeated; changed from the innocent boy he once was into a fiend. Important lessons can be learned from this struggle; Even the worst challenges can be overcome, we should value all that we have because it can all be taken away and also that there is much good and evil in the world we live in.

Many and many child are forced to become soldiers and is becoming a major issue in the global level. A long way gone is a real life story that was faced by Ishmael Beah who became soldier even if he didn’t want to be. He wrote this book to show people around the world, the suffering that child goes through in the war country. He didn’t have any other choices. Ishmael Beah uses imagery, flashback, and narrative techniques to show the condition of the child soldiers is a major issue going on the world through the memoirs “A long way gone”.

“For more than three hours, we stayed at the wharf, anxiously waiting and expecting either to see our families or to talk to someone who had seen them.” (Beah 10). In Beah’s quest to find his family and to survive is an unbelievable task for a 12 year old boy. After he gives up on waiting for his family, the rebels attack Mattru Jong. He barely escapes and is on his journey to find his family. As he wanders through the backlands of Sierra Leone, he describes the forests as “leafy,” “wet,” and “cold” in the winters. During the winters and falls, the land could be described as lurid or vibrant, and “hot,” “dry,” and “dusty” in the summers. As he is wandering the forests of Sierra Leone, he comes across a family that is swimming in a river. After a conflicting conversation, Beah thought “I was glad to see other faces and at the same time disappointed that the war had destroyed the experience of meeting people. Even a twelve-year-old couldn’t be trusted anymore.” (Beah 48). At last, he found the village his parents managed to get to but was slowed by an old friend who wanted him to help carry bananas to the village. After a long walk, they finally reach the village only to see it going up in flames while rebels are shooting everyone down with no remorse. He found the unspeakable truth about his family once he reached the village, he then began his run from the rebels. He ran until

A Long Way Gone is a heartbreaking story on how war can change lives. Ishmael Beah, who is also the author, tells the true story of his life and becoming a young soldier against his will. Ishmael finds himself committing acts he could never do normally, such as stealing, killing, and doing drugs. It all started when Ishmael’s village was attacked. Ishmael and his friends are forced to wander from village to village. Eventually, Ishmael is recruited and becomes a soldier. He is forced to kill and commit acts of violence he could never see himself doing.

The novel A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier tells the story of a boy named Ishmael Beah and his experience in the civil war that was happening in his country. Beah experiences many violent consequences in childhood. These violent experiences teach the reader about how his trust and other people’s trust change due to violence.

Edward Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. At an early age, he was engrossed in the problem of human cruelty, so he decided to become a journalist. He worked for the New York Evening Post and the Springfield Union. Bellamy had a passion for writing fiction articles and novels. Looking Backward has besieged him to the world of literature. This novel’s main feature is the destructives that Bellamy perceived through the society of social and economic systems. Looking Backward nominates that an economy based on a publicly-owned capital would solve problems of social equality. The next few paragraphs will summarize Bellamy’s thoughts and opinions on social, economic and political changes.

Beah and the boys who became his fellow child-soldiers had no real understanding of the conflict they were recruited to fight in beyond how it affected them personally. Ishmael and the other boys couldn’t fully comprehend why they had to kill the only thing they had on their minds at that moment was that they had to follow orders, so they wouldn’t be killed or left to die of starvation. “A 12-year-old is conscious only of immediate circumstances, and in Beah’s case the arrival of the rebels in his small town meant sudden

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, strongly depicts civil war brutalities and the truth of child soldiers. The author develops a theme through a riveting tale of circumstances that led a twelve year boy to transform into a ruthless warrior.

Published in the early months of 2007 A Long Way Gone tells the story of Ishmael Beah a young boy took in by the army of Sierra Leone and forced to fight along

The message is obvious-Don’t text and drive. The quotes at the end of the commercial clearly and logically share this information. In the final moments of the commercial, the words “No e-mail is worth a life.” appear on the screen as the underlined word is replaced with “post”, “glance”, “search”, and finally “text”. The blatant statement does not leave the audience in confusion over either the product being advertised or the message being sent. In its commercial “It can Wait” AT&T uses a combination of emotional appeals and logic found both in obvious moments and subtle details of the commercial in hopes of scaring drivers away from texting and driving.

“The psychological and emotional trauma caused by war adversely affects adults who are sent to fight in conflicts, and the effects on vulnerable and impressionable children can be worse”(Letty,2014). Ishmael Beah, the main character and author of the book a long way gone, didnt had the opportunity of a decent childhood like the one most of us had, Beah lost his family and multiple friends thanks to the civil war at Sierra Leone. As a result, Ishmael became a very violent and an emotionally independent person. The trauma that war gave to Ishmael is gigantic making his memoir full of emotions and suspense. Beah, did most of his survival and adventure by his own, this changed Ishmael to be an isolated and independent person. Ishmael isolates himself emotionally from other characters in order to survive the trauma of the civil war in Sierra Leone,

When I first started researching the author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, I was completely amazed at his ability to overcome the mountainous obstacles he has had to face in his life. Growing up in a third world country is challenging enough, but to try and survive a civil war and at the same time be forced into becoming a soldier seems almost unimaginable. On top of all of this, he had to provide for his family and fight several of his friends from the same tribe who had also been forced into becoming soldiers themselves. Despite all of this adversity, in the end, Ishmael is able to escape death, and capture, and eventually flee Sierra Leone to find a new home at a rehabilitation center in New York City. After reaching this center, Ishmael is able to share his own incredible story, along with other children forced into war with members at a convention at the United Nations.