Brief Summary Of The Book Thief By Ishmael

Throughout the novel, Ishmael and his friends begin to those their humanity and become completely different individuals because of their exposure to the war. The

Survival is also one of the themes that appear in the novel because of Ishmael’s past being in the war. He quickly learned that in order for him to survive, he had to hide his

Throughout the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael faces a plentiful amount of challenges and conflicts. In the book there are four main conflicts that Ishmael faces and overcomes. These conflicts include Ishmael running away from the war, his family, and his friends, Ishmael's entire family dying and him becoming a soldier at the age of 13, Ishmael going through rehabilitation, and Ishmael trying to move to a safer area when war meets Freetown.

He didn’t know how to act or what to say but all his uncle could do was tear up and remember Ishmael’s resemblance of his dad. Ishmael then slowly open up to his uncle and goes home with his uncle. In conclusion, No matter how hard your past was you can overcome it with caring supporters by your side. The message in the book is really motivational to me, it make me feel like life is too precious to hold on to the past and not move on towards the future. Throughout the story Ismael had supporters who motivate him to keeping him going. Now he is a successful man who lives in New

Ishmael wants American readers to know that war is brutal. Americans tend to romanticize war. They believe war involves people committing great acts of heroism and bravery while fighting to protect the love of their life. Ishmael knows that is not what war is like. There is no romance; and there is no heroism involved in war. It is terrible people doing terrible things. War takes humanity away from people. They turn into animals who just kill and torture people. Everyone else is running away from the war just to have the war catch up to them. Americans do not see the honest truth of war, and Ishmael wanted to change that by telling his story of war.

For a boy who often has a great deal of misfortune in his life, he also seems to have an endless amount of luck. Though fate may have played a big role in starting Ishmael’s war life, his luck always helps him overcome the obstacles the war throws at him. Before the war, Ishmael spends more than a month in the forest alone before he finally runs into people again. Ishmael consciously joins the new group of six boys. With over miles and miles of empty forest and rebel territory, Ishmael was lucky to find a group of boys who have the same motives as him. As the boys continue on their journey, they’ve been captured and are brought to a nearby village; they wait

The rebels attacked the village before they arrived, for Ishmael fell to the bottom of the hopeless abyss with no hope to get up again. While they were hiding from two rebels who were just older than Ishmael, some one in their group moved which made some noise. Although they escaped from the bullets of rebels, Gasemu was killed on the way. At the end of Chapter 11, Ishmael sat with him when he exhaled the last breath before his death. He was wondering what it felt like for Gasemu when he was died. Compared with the previous chapter, Ishmael was getting used with death in war. In stead of being scared during the combat with rebels, they were calmed to protect themselves. It was a good change for him at the time, but it was also an negative change for him and all children who lived in wars. They felt nothing while death happened. It wasn’t their fault to be like that, but it effected their mental towards death. I was surprised by the negative affect by wars; this kind of thing was the most unfamiliar topic in my life, but reading this book made me think about the wars more than before. I was shocked how little the human is during a war. A tiny little bullet can kill a person in minutes and he despair of hopelessness can also break one down. I do not like wars, but I cared about it more than

Beah had never a home, he had never a place where he went and felt safe. Ishmael was never loved, he was just used for the benefit of others. He had to survive all the physical and emotional pain. Beah overcame the psychological problems that the war left him and learned how to regain his humanity that the army had taken from him. Ishmael never lost hope, he always looked forward for a better future. He kept having hope even when he was brainwashed by the army and was forced to do bad things. He was always hoping to survive. Despite what Ishmael lived through, he regained his humanity by the help of others but mostly by his perseverance and personal strength he could vanquish his killing thoughts and become a confident person

The book is based on actual events and is expressed through a personal point of view. Ishmael wrote a memoir that tells the story of a young boy who is torn from his peaceful life, and then forced into a frightening world of drugs and slavery. In writing about his experiences, he has made the decision to present his experiences in a particular way by missing out details and recounting others. This

While being face to face with war, Ishmael illustrates what he, as well as his life, has become, “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector and my rule was to kill or be killed…” (Beah, p.126). With these declarations, the reader can clearly comprehend his lack of innocence and empathy. He has become a unfeeling, cold-blooded soldier trained to kill or be killed and survival is his ultimate goal. Later on in the book, the reader is informed of the barbaric scene that takes place in Benin Home, a rehabilitation center. When Ishmael arrives at this site, he ruthlessly interrogates a couple of his housemates “I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. 'Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?”(Beah, p.133). Undoubtedly, this is not normal behavior for a 15-year old and when he displays this conduct, it can be unquestionably said that Ishmael has lost all sense of innocence and emotion. In this section of his story, Ishmael is threatening to kill boys his own age, which shows how deviated he has become from his original character and sense. Both of these examples verify that Ishmael Beah in nowhere near the innocent, rap-enthusiast and family loving boy he once was. The child that was Ishmael Beah is now dead, and in his place stands a cold-hearted

In the attempt to comprehend the meaning of being human, it’s important to first understand what it must mean to be pure evil. If we can know what pure evil is, we can understand the conditions that brought Ishmael to do such horrid things himself. In several chapters of the book, Ishmael goes through the torture of the militia known as the

In the beginning Ishmael has somewhat of a normal family even though his parents are divorced. Then as soon as the War breaks out his family is a group of boys and his brother. The group of boys become family because they rely on each other to stay alive. Then the group of boys gets split up and Ishmael never see a single one of his immediate family ever again. Next, Ishmael joins a different group of boys that

When war reached out to Ishmael he was away from his home and was forced to keep running in order to survive. He had heard stories from other survivors when he was younger but as he mentions, “At time I thought that some of the stories the passersby told were exaggerated”(5).

”Very soon i will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you . It will be quieter than i am now.” In this metaphor Ishmael is predicting that in the future some time he will die and end all of his suffering.

Ishmael was starving insanely. He felt pain from drinking water and his lips were as dry as the desert. His ribs were visible and Ishmael wanted food really badly. However, one evening, he had found a five year old boy holding corn and “rushed on the boy at the same time, and before he knew what was happening, we had taken the corn from him” (Beah 30). Ishmael was desperately hungry. Due to the war and the lack of food, Ishmael needed to keep himself alive. His inherent human instincts forced him to act out and steal the corn. If he was not in a state of hunger, he would not be stealing food from five year old boys. According to Zimbardo, “the guards, some of whom identified themselves as pacifists, fell quickly into the role of hard-bitten disciplinarians” (Zimbardo 2). Out of all the men he is traveling with, he is the kindest of all. However, the starving sensation initiated his actions to steal the corn away from the innocent boy. Without the feel for lacking for food, Ishmael would have done such a cruel