A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone, Beah’s natural imagery of thick, wild, and dangerous forest reflects his distressed emotional state and the devastation of Sierra Leone. Beah recalls his long and endless journey through the forest and expresses, “I walked as fast as I could, but the more I walked, the more it seemed I was getting deeper into the thickness of the forest. The harder I tried to get out, the bigger and taller the trees became” (53). Here, Beah represents the trees as the war in Sierra Leone because no matter how far Beah travels, he is still trapped in the war and the harder he tries to the escape the rebels, the faster the rebels catch up to him. Notably, this image mirror’s Beah’s mindset and the situation in Sierra

In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, an experienced soldier was writing about his memories of the war. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone with his family, but one day it all changed. At the age of 12, Beah was taken by the Rebels to kill. His whole mindset changed during the war. However, when the war ended child soldiers were taken to a rehabilitation group, and it did help Ishmael go back the way he used to be before the war.

Jaelyn Sullivan Honors English IV 2 February 2024 Safety is a Priority A Long Way Gone is a true story about a thirteen-year-old named, Ishmael Beah, who becomes a boy soldier during the Civil War. Throughout the book, Beah is faced with many times where he has to put one need over another. Beah put himself first when it was necessary by putting others at risk.

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah descriptively writes about his experience as a child soldier in the civil war in Sierra Leone. In his memoir he shows how everyday things can be seen in a hostile way from war. Beah uses rhetorical strategies such as characterization and imagery to help.

Kids forced to kill other kids. Made to take drugs and destroy human life each and every day. This is not a young man’s typical lifestyle, but it is for child soldiers that were made to fight in the Civil War in Sierra Leone. In the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, he describes the atrocities he faces and actually does himself. The reader learns how Ishmeal fights for his country but is permanently scarred due to the trauma he is put through.

Legion Borders Chestnut Honors English 4 3/1/2024 Perseverance in Humanity Insurmountable challenges showcase the ability to persevere. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah is stuck in a situation where there is no escape. The civil war in Sierra Leone has destroyed everything he knows and dragged him into the fighting. He continues to live and fight for survival despite knowing that he has no place to go, no family alive, and essentially no future.

Ishmael Beah is someone who has lived through a lot. As a child, he grew up in Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone. His life was changed when war came into his country. Here, we will be exploring the transition from being an innocent child to becoming a soldier, to being a scarred adult.

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

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)

In the introduction of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he writes, “There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a faraway and different land. It wasn’t until refugees started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country” (Beah 1). During this statement Beah says that he is completely oblivious to the war around him. These people living in Sierra Leone had adapted to the war to the point where their perception had been altered. With this memoir he shares his experiences and obstacles he faces throughout the war to become a beckon of hope in this despairing country. Ishmael uses his social skills, timely luck, and emotional strength, to find the courage to overcome these adversities and survive in and out of the war.

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.

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of these child soldiers  , Ishmael Beah is a child who lived most of his childhood in the war   . He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words according to  http://www.alongwaygone.com/index.html and his memoir “A Long Way Gone”. The war had made ishmael have perseverance  in the long run , inference that he was brainwashed by the war and that ishmael was a very hopeful child always wishing for better days.

“If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen...” (pg. 54). Throughout the course of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, we familiarize ourselves with the exceptional hardships that Ishmael has experienced as a child soldier, in Sierra Leone, and what actions he takes to overcome them. Despite the fact that Ishmael has been through these devastating hardships and that he became the fear that he himself feared, Ishmael is able to instill hope and keep the reader going through the themes of powerful memories, nature and redemption. He does this through the use of powerful memories that contrast the fear and danger of the war with the remembrance of the beauty of life. Furthermore, nature leaves the reader striving

In a Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah describes his life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Army and how it impacted his childhood. Ishmael’s small village was taken over and he was forced to join the army at the age of 12.

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.