Ending the book and journey with such poignant finality, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, comes full-circle with the story he tells us at the end. Having made the journey of escaping as a refugee, Ishmael transitioned from a young, untroubled boy to a man burdened with war and trapped in the crossfire. Having left the RUF and been rehabilitated, Ishmael thought he had finally escaped the war. However, when the violence and war begins again, Ishmael flees Sierra Leone. In the end, he reflects upon a story the grandfather of a friend used to tell him and the other children in the village, which was of a hunter who was faced with two terrible choices. Despite being incredibly uplifting and believing that circumstances are looking
A long way gone by Ishmael Beah, attempts to evoke a powerful response from the leader, by using vivid descriptions to show how he has become emotionally traumatized by the acts of violence in the war. The reader then sympathizes with Ishmael and begins to understand the lasting and deep, emotional pain that Ishmael deals with on a daily basis.
Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone and Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, both have an important war stories to tell to our generations. In Maus, we see a family portrait complicated by the legacy of the Holocaust, the bond of families are tested between Vladek, the survivor of the Holocaust and his son Artie, who is ultimately affected by the Holocaust as it reverberate through future generation. A Long Way Gone is a memoir of Ishmael Beah, afflicted by and forced to participate in the Sierra Leone Civil War as a boy soldier. Although they bear some superficial differences, the similarities between Maus and A Long Way Gone are remarkable.
A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.
Chapter III,” The Dominant Primordial Beast,” marks the conclusion of the first major phase of Buck’s initiation; Buck was not qualified as a member of the pack but that he was worthy of leadership based on his instinct. In this chapter, there was a modulation of style to the glimmering of Buck’s mythic destiny; instead of sharply detailed physical description: With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping In the frost dance and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow
A Long Way Gone is a novel written by Ishmael Beah. He’s a child who lost everything extremely valuable to him, due to war. Ishmael uses imagery, descriptive writing, and emotions to show the challenges it took to survive the war. As the war goes on, Ishmael describes the changes of how Mogbwemo, the village he was raised in, and his neighborhood, of how it went from peaceful to violence, and how the war had impact him and the people of Sierra Leone.
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.
“They fight like soldiers. They die like children”. ( Romeo Dallaire). “A Long Way Gone” was written by ishmael Beah and published in 2007. “A Long Way Gone” is a true story of Ishmael Beah, Who becomes a child soldier during a civil war.
“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.
Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the aspects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation with war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as young boy and the many issues he faces while living in
“He never said anything back then and didn’t get upset by what they said.” (Beah, 2007, p. 91) Living freely, this man is a spirited human, not suffering but taking the pain. Pleasant people in ‘A Long Way Gone” are the selfless, secure souls. Next, on page 119, Ishmael remarks “I was not afraid of the lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.” At the front lines of his first battle as a soldier, trained to fight and through with living fearfully. The water rises and Ishmael builds his wall. Also, on page 187 Ishmael utilizes brutal honesty with his interviewer, never questioning himself, “I meant what I said and it was not a funny matter.” Embodying the confidence of someone choosing to stay when everyone else runs, surviving the war. In conclusion “I Lived” by OneRepublic (2013) the pinnacle of connections between the real world and literary devices in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (2007), reflecting the significance of courage and all it can get you
“When I was seven I had an answer to this question that made sense to me….if I was the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament” (Beah 218). A Long Way Gone is a memoir of a child soldier who is the author himself Ishmael Beah. Beah around the ages of twelve to thirteen grew up in Sierra Leone during its civil war. During his story, Beah talks in a tone that is straight to the point, however many devices help the reader imagine his loss of innocence. Beah uses a series of flashbacks, symbols and motifs to illustrate his loss to his readers.
Hope enables people to move on by providing the thought that maybe tomorrow’s events will be better than today’s. Hope is a theme that remains constant in every part of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael begins the novel optimistic, believing he will find his family again. This optimism is later lost when Ishmael is recruited by the army to fight against the rebels, causing him to become addicted to drugs and the thrill of killing. Three years after his recruitment, Ishmael is rescued by UNICEF-a group dedicated to rehabilitating child soldiers. During his rehabilitation, Ishmael discovers hope once more by relearning how to trust, love, and have the will to survive. The presence of hope throughout A Long Way Gone enables Ishmael to
The Glass Menagerie is known to many as a modern tragedy as well as a modern drama. A modern tragedy is when something tragic happens to not a person of nobility or the rich but to an average person. The Glass Menagerie is a perfect example of a modern tragedy because the Wingfield’s, an average family dreams are not fulfilled. The dreams that each of the family members has seems to come in conflict with one another’s dreams and this is what makes all of their dreams nearly impossible to accomplish.
In “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael and others have become a product of their environment and are very stuck in their ways. Ishmael and friends are put into the Benin Home, a rehabilitation center, and cannot stop their bad habits: