Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, published by Sarah Crichton Books in New York in 2007, tells the haunting story of Ishmael Beah, a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The book begins in January of 1993 in Ishmael’s small village called Mogbwemo, located near Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone. A Long Way Gone addresses a plethora of geographical issues such as refugees and population movements, child exploitation, and most of all: war. Each of these issues directly affects Ishmael, the autobiographer. In his book of memoirs, A Long Way Gone, Beah uses his horrendous experiences as a young teenager thrown into the dead heat of civil war to effectively argue that children have a right to their own childhoods, and that children deserve to have their innocence remain in place until they are older, not have it be stolen by the terror of war. His potent encounters and experiences also highlight successfully the undeniable effects that geographical problems are causing not just in Sierra Leone, but across the entire African continent.

A Long Way Gone. Throughout the book he undergoes many changes in life from losing his family and friends to massacring his once neighbors and friendly school mates. Ishmael Beah is both a victim and a victimizer as he flees the ruthless RUF soldiers but, also finds himself craving the front lines of war where he is brainwashed to pillage and demolish the villages of the very civilians he is supposed to protect as a government soldier. While sharing

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.

“My entire body went into shock. Only my eyes moved, slowly opening and closing” (Ishmael Beah 18). Ishmael had just found his family's ashes in their house, that burned down. In a Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah was separated from his family at twelve years old when his town, in Africa, was attacked. When he was eighteen years old, he went through many challenges of being a soldier in the Sierra Leone Civil War. He got through most of his days with the power of alcohol, drugs, and marijuana. Throughout A Long way Gone Ishmael lost, and partially regained his innocence, his will to survive weakened, and the damage of war continued to get worse. Ishmael Beah's theme is survival, and manipulation. Ishmael did whatever he needed to survive, and he was also manipulated during the war to take drugs, drink alcohol, and smoke marijuana.

War has scared people all over the world, including the people outside it, and has made changed people to do things they did not know they were capable of. A Long Way Gone is a book that features Ishmael Beah who is both the author and the narrator in this novel. Beah was born in 1980 and was only around 11 years old when a civil war in Sierra Leone broke out in 1991. The civil war had many problems that took place, but this novel aims its focus on the fact that both sides of the war used child soldiers and he was one of the victims to become one. Beah had become a child soldier when all his friends started to die off and were forced to become a soldier and survive the war he had desperately tried to escape from. Ishmael Beah can be seen

The book I have really enjoyed reading in the past year is “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah which is a story that has been making me want to not only read more, but also dig deeper into the subject. This amazing memoir was written in a first person perspective of being a soldier as a boy in the war of Sierra Leone. Ishmael’s writing style draws my attention because of its order of the story, emotional appeals and imagery.

Recently, everyone has begun to wonder the same thing: why are so many leaders so… corrupt? Why do they care only about a miniscule group of people, throwing aside morals altogether? The feeling of power creates a superiority complex, letting power go to a leader’s head and giving them the desire and means to execute terrible things. This is a problem because many people in our world acquire their power because others believe they can improve the world. Once power takes control, they become corrupt. It is essential for the public to understand this because otherwise, people in power will gain this complex.

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

At 12 years old imagine knowing that everyone you know is gone and your home is torn up. Imagine wandering in the wilderness and being alone. Imagine becoming recruited as a child solider, and being brain washed and drugged to kill people of the same culture. Imagine the innocence being corrupted and the pain being brought on. This is no life for anyone to live, but in the story A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier written by Ishamael Beah that has became his life. The story take places in Sierra Leone when his life is take over by soldiers who have killed his family and destroyed his home. Ishmael is forced to flee his home and finds himself becoming a child a solider. Sierra Leone has been filled with war and poverty, but within this story it shows Ishmaels strength, but it also shows the pain of his innocence being robbed from him at such a young age.

A Long Way Gone is a raw, honest depiction of war and violence, but it is a unique autobiography written by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael (at the age of 12) had an ordinary life with his

A Long Way Gone begins in Ishmael Beah’s early youth in 1993. A twist in a childhood that is unexpected. It all started from an attack by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in his village of Mogbwemo. At this time, he along with his older brother and two friends lost connection with their family. His first few chapters, he spend time looking back to home to get money for to purchase foods. When Ishmael and his groups run to the rebels, they were separated from one another. Then, he now noticed that his family has already been hit by the RUF, he started to

The ground is hot and damp. Humidity hangs in the air. Blood runs through the rivers, and bullet casings line the ground like stones on a path. Bodies pile up faster than the plants can decompose them. Sierra Leone’s war-torn country has seen a lot since its independence in 1961, including an end to democracy, three military coups, a one-party state, and a civil war. The civil war affected many families, like Ishmael Beah’s. Beah is the author of A Long Way Gone, a book about a boy soldier who is saved from the horrors of the civil war in Sierra Leone. The war (and other factors) affected Beah’s personality throughout the story, and the way his life would change. Once he becomes a soldier, his personality changes very much. Also, when Beah

In the novel, “A long way gone” by Ishmael Beah, Beah is overwhelmed with the situation in Sierra Leone that he has been forced into. Beah looks at the world as if they are both at war with one in other, in Beah’s mind everyone and everything is trying to kill him. For example, Beah and a couple others are attending a church service, when the rebel forces come into the town and try to kill everyone. Beah and his friends flee into nearby bushes, but the “imam” (pastor) continues to pray. The rebel’s take the imam to Town Square, “tied him to an iron post, and set fire to his body. They didn’t burn him completely, but the fire killed him”(pg 44). This tragedy, most likely made Beah question his religion, because how could God stand by and let

A Long Way Gone started in Ishmael Beah's early youth in 1993 in Sierra Leone. A twist of fate leads Beah along with his older brother, Junior, and two other friends to leave their home village to practice for a talent competition in Mattru Jong on the eve of an attack by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) on his home village of Mogbwemo. From that moment, chaos envelops Beah's

A Long Way Gone shows the struggles Ishmael Beah faces as a young soldier. A Long Way Gone has many turning points throughout the story. In Chapter 12, Ishmael and his companions are forced to become child warriors. The horror of war is a common theme all through this section as Ishmael and the rest of his friends confront an unimaginable decision, fighting in the army. If they decide to escape the village's protection, they are taking a huge risk of being attacked and killed by the rebels. This demonstrates that in times of war, individuals are compelled to pick among terrible choices that are frequently adverse to another person. Before joining the army, Ishmael was very innocent and could not even stand looking at any dead bodies. Due to