A Long Way Gone Rhetorical Analysis

Advertisements are everywhere. From billboards, to magazines, to newspapers, flyers and TV commercials, chances are that you won’t go a day without observing some sort of ad. In most cases, companies use these ads as persuasive tools, deploying rhetorical appeals—logos, pathos, and ethos—to move their audiences to think or act in a certain way. The two magazine ads featured here, both endorsing Pedigree products, serve as excellent examples of how these modes of persuasion are strategically used.

When going through withdrawals, Beah was defiant and rebellious. That is typical behavior of any child. It appears that even though Beah was taught to be a violent killer, he was still just a boy. It is intriguing that he experienced very little fear or any other emotion when killing; however, he was terrified in his dreams. Maybe, this is to detach himself from his unwanted reality? A child’s subconscious is a powerful thing.

Through Beah’s use of questions, the reader is able ponder on the question as if Beah is asking the questions to him or her.

Furthermore, while Beah begins to setup shop in a forest he encounters a pack of wild pigs that begin to hunt him down and after he escapes he recalls something his grandmother had told him; “ … Since that day, the wild pigs have distrusted all humans, and whenever they see a person in the forest, they think he or she is there to avenge the hunter” (54). Studying what Beah has stated here and why he is remembering this he indicates how lost he is feeling since no one will trust him so we are able to see him or other teenage boys as the hunters since the rebels use them as soldiers which makes civilians

The war developed him into a different person. Primarily, Beah was arrogant, he did not want help because was did not realize that he needed rehabilitation. “It was infuriating to be told what to do by civilians… [the soldiers] refused to do anything that [they] were asked to do” (138). He refused to receive the aid that was being given to him. He had one nurse, Esther, who he warmed up to and because of her help, Beah had been reconstructed into a new man. She lured him to see her by bribing him with casset tapes of Bob Marley music. He grew to trust Esther as he opened up and told her stories of his past. She encouraged him to leave an affect on the visitors..“‘[Beah] really impressed those visitors. They know now that it is possible for [boys] to be rehabilitated’” (Beah 169). Beah proved to the visitors that he had matured into a better person, he went on to be a spokesman for boy soldiers who were subject to the war. His speeches helped many other boys find a new beginning after seeing how he found his

Beah lost his entire family all over again when coming so close to seeing his family and losing such important part of himself. Beah and friends finally found the place where Beah family had been staying. The group of boys had almost reached the village when the sound of gunshots exploded, and smoke started coming from the town, once entering the village it was too late because the rebels burnt the village to the ground and killed everyone. Beah stated that all he wanted to see his family, even if that meant dying with them. The event of losing his family had killed Beah emotions and connection with life. All that Beah had left was the friends that have been traveling with and the music cassettes. Even though Beah doesn't feel any happiness

I saw myself holding an AK-47 and walking through a coffee farm with a squad that consisted of many boys and a few adults.¨ Beah explains while recalling a nightmare he had in which he was back in the war although he had been living in New York City for months. This is the first time Beah’s PTSD is displayed in this book, and just one of the many examples he gives us of how the war has had long-term effects on his mental

Throughout the memoir, more specifically, after his friends begin to die, Beah begins emotionally detaching himself from everything around him. He begins to keep to himself and not socialize as much with the villagers while he is passing through their village, he begins not to trust people, and he begins to detach himself from his group of friends. This is known as a defense mechanism called detachment, where the person removes themselves from the environment or a group of people they are with to cope with stress or emotional trauma. Beah uses detachment to protect himself from being hurt again after another one of his friends or family members dies during the war. He decided it was easier to have no emotion towards anyone than it was to experience

When he becomes a soldier, and is first taken out to the front lines, Beah watches two of his friends get gunned down. He is terrified, and in desperation, he resorts to shooting “everything that moved” (119), using his anger over his friends’ deaths and his hunger for vengeance as motivation.

Most importantly when he is ill and needs medicine, he says to himself, “I thought about when Junior and I had visited Kabati and would take walks with our grandfather on paths around the coffee farms by the village. He would point out medical leaves and trees whose barks were important medicines” (51). Beah is remembering special times with his grandfather and his brother that could save his life. He cherished the time spent with his grandfather, these memories help him push through to stay alive even though he’s ill.

A Long Way Gone is an autobiography which tells the raw, mesmerizing story of how Ishmael Beah lived as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Guns, violence and fear are reoccurring themes throughout the entire novel which shed light on the constant controversy over guns. As Beah recalls his horrific encounters with guns in his early childhood, it’s clear to see the power they give to a person. When confronted with a gun, people become desperate and are willing to do anything to survive even if it results in them abandoning their morals. Beah illustrates the abandonment of morals in desperate times as he writes, “And as the gunfire intensified, people gave up looking for their loved ones and ran out of town” (9). Guns also

The twelve year old Ishmael Beah didn't live like any ordinary twelve year old kid would have. Ishmael, his brother Junior, friends Talloi and Mohamed, are in a rap group together and they left their village to go and help out a friend's talent show. When they reach their friend's village they find out that the rebels had attacked their home. After a while, the rebels finally reached and attacked the village of Matru Jong causing chaos. The group of friends luckily escape and a whole new life begins for them. "It was a typical aspect of being in the war. Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds. And no one had any control over anything. We had yet to learn

In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he talks about his years in Sierra Leone as a child, then as a soldier within 5 years. Beah was just a kid who loved to perform rap music and dance before the war

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.

The unsettling images Beah illustrates throughout the book causes the reader to feel depressed and sickened. After traveling to the town that he heard his parents were in, Beah was stopped just outside the town by someone from his old village. Gasemu, the man from his town, asked Beah and his friends to help him to retrieve bananas. Suddenly the rebels attacked the village they were about to enter. Gasemu was shot multiple times and he started bleeding excessively: “Alhaji lifted Gasemu’s hand; his side was bleeding as well. It was as if his hand had been holding his blood from flowing. It rushed out of him like water breaking banks(...) his blood continued to slip through my fingers. He looked at me, his eyes sadly beginning to sink deeper