How Does Ishmael Beah Use Imagery In A Long Way Gone

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 A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

Ishmael Beah's memoir "a Long Way Gone" is a true story about his early life and his experience in the war in Sierra Leone as a child soldier. There are many symbols, figures of speech and images used in Beah's memoir. Interchangeably, there are relationships between all three of these terms in the book. In "a Long Way Gone" Symbolism, Images and figures of speech convey a very moody message to the reader, based upon what they are reading. These literary building blocks helped shape the memoir and keep the reader engaged throughout it.

“I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child” (Beah 199). Ishmael Beah had a long road to rehabilitate but he was able to rehabilitate because he had vital forces shaping him. In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, a long way gone, Ishmael was a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He wrote a memoir sharing his experiences of being a child soldier and of him rehabilitation. During 1991 to 2002 there was a vicious civil war going on in the western African country of Sierra Leone between the RUF rebels and the government forces. Ishmael Beah was a young 10-year-old boy who lived in a small village, he liked rap music and dancing hip hop with his friends. Ishmael was never affected by the war until one day when

In chapter 7 the village that Beah is staying in gets attacked and Beah says, “[He] had no time to go look for [Junior], since the attack was so sudden, but instead had to run into the bush alone” (Beah 45). In this situation, Beah could have chosen to go look for Junior even though it would have been dangerous. However, he puts his own safety above Junior’s and leaves him to fend for himself. Beah’s firsthand account of his life during a time of war provides real-world examples of how people who are placed in dangerous situations are willing to sacrifice other’s safety for their own. Another example of people leaving others to fend for themselves in A Long Way Gone was in chapter 4 when Beah and his group were traveling across a swamp and “one boy among the last batch to cross the clearing was too slow.

“A long way gone” was written by ishmael beah and published in 2007. The novel is about a kid that lost everything, what he loved “ I was losing everything that meant to me”. And the only choice he had it was to be a child soldier. ‘My squad is my family,my gun is my provider, and protector,and my rule is to kill or be killed”(Ishmael Beah)”

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.

In the book “A Long Way Gone” music plays a role as a healer and a saviour.

“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

Since the beginning of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the protagonist of the novel Ishmael endeavors to flee from the hardships enkindled by the RUF rebel organization that has amalgamated the country of Sierra Leone, officially making it a war zone. Moreover, for more than two years Ishmael has attempted to escape from the rebels, moving from village to village, rummaging through abandoned homes. Seemingly, the rebels would make their way to Ishmael, sweeping all villages. Deprived of food or any sign of hope surviving as a “lone wolf”, Ishmael enlisted in the Army of Sierra Leone to fight against the radical organization. Ishmael risked his life for the prime purpose of surviving and to pursue freedom. Furthermore, self-determination was one of the reasons for such bravery, but it was also due to specific objects that aided in Ishmael’s journey for freedom. Nonetheless, in his literary work, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom. The most evident symbols that accentuate the theme of oppression and/or freedom are the moon, the rap cassette tape, and the AK-47.

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

innocence. Beah’s parents are burned alive by the rebels; this is the first step towards his animosity

Imagine a place so desolate and broken you feel as if it has been forgotten about for ages. There is a sense of despair and a feeling of eeriness that overcomes you. This feeling is not to unfamiliar for John Bul Dau, and those “Lost Boys” of Sudan. Djellaba soldiers invaded John’s village forcing him and many other members of the Dinka tribe to flee to the safety of Kenya. Little did they know this would be a journey of heartbreak, trial, and faith to survive the harsh conditions they soon would have to face.

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.