Ishmael Beal Book Report

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

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

Ishmael Beah is described as a pre-teen, with a love of rap and hip-hop music. He finishes as a drug-addicted killing machine, out avenging the death of his entire family. Before being rescued by a United Nations Program, and eventually fleeing to New York for rehabilitation, it is a tragic and harrowing tale that gives substance to the term ‘Boy Soldier’, that isn’t really understood in most cases. Ishmael gives a gentle portrayal of his life, before the war reached his small village and forever changed his life. Abruptly he becomes fugitive fleeing for his life and eventually into a corrupted teen.

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

Ishmael Beah was at the age of thirteen when his childhood and innocence was taken from him. For example, Beah says “My childhood had gone without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen”(30). It happened so quickly. He was frantic with worry. Beah was forced to join the Sierra Leone military. It was not until later he himself started to believe he has lost his innocence. At this young age he was killing the rebels that traumatized him purely to seek revenge and to survive. His hate for the rebels was very strong, “Whenever I looked at the rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many

Taking into account, the effects of storytelling and conversation in Ishmael’s life, it is clear his grandparents play a crucial role. Firstly, they provided him with many excellent stories, which led to him feeling compelled to re-tell them and in result regained peace at heart. In fact, his grandparents, especially his grandmother, are more or less associated with oral stories. She always told him and other children stories that were morally powerful and with no doubt memorable. For example, much of Ishmael’s life, or we had better say his

Ishmael is about a young scientist that can telepathically speak with a gorilla named Ishmael who will soon to be the teacher. Ishmael taught himself his education when he was able to talk to his owner telepathically to get him books. Ishmael helps the narrator realize that we can’t just take whatever we want from the environment and all of its resources. The narrator sees Ishmael for days in a row but ends up having to miss days to see him. He then finds Ishmael at a traveling carnival to finish the lesson they had. The narrator has an idea of buying Ishmael from the carnival owners and finally when he got enough money to buy the gorilla, Ishmael dies.

Throughout it all, Ishmael leads his pupil through his trials with wit and wisdom, even while leading him towards solutions for world hunger and environmental destruction. Makes one wonder how it is that Quinn, as he claims, arrived at all of the conclusions in the book by simply going to the library and doing a little research. Part parable, part myth, and totally compelling, Ishmael leaves one hungry and wondering, waiting for the next chapter of humanity's tale to play out. As any good book does, Ishmael leaves readers with more questions than answers, and demands that the reader figure out the solution for himself.

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 talks about how Mr. Sokolow was really interested in Nazi Germany and he tells the narrator that the reason Hitler was so successful was due to his ability to tell a story that people could believe. Ishmael went on to talk about how Mother Culture is feeding a story that’s so extensive we don’t even listen to it anymore, but it educates us about every moment of our lives. Ishmael is essentially trying to help the narrator hear the story and see his culture from an outsider’s perspective. However, Ishmael went through some

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

106-107). One of the other boys response to the ultimatum was “It is better to stay here for now. We had no choice. Leaving the village was as good as being dead” (p. 107). The lieutenant’s weapon was instilling them with fear and telling them that the only way you could stay alive was if you joined their forces. Of course, the men and young boys complied with the lieutenant because their first thoughts were this is life or death. What Ishmael did not know when he was a child soldier was he was being drugged. Before going to war, they would give them white tablets to boost their energy. The boys free time consisted of “...smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread out on the table, and of course taking more of the white capsules, as I had become addicted to them” (p. 121). First of all, a 13 year old boy should not be smoking marijuana, sniffing brown brown,and cocaine mixed with gunpowder. Those drugs are lethal and he could have been killed by

As the story moves along Ishmael’s relation with the civilians drastically changes. In the beginning, before the rebels reached the villages surrounding his home, he was accepted. He always would have a place to spend, and a host willing to feed him. They were carefree, and they could play outside with the other children in front of the adults amused eyes. As the story moves on the civilian stop being so trustful, and become suspicious of them. “This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy” (p.37). Rumours of their group is enough for the men of villages to come out prepared to defend themselves. They’re reluctantly given food, and shelter in some villages. Mother’s no longer trust their children around them. Around the middle of the novel, Ishmael and his group reach a fishing village. It seemingly is abandoned

In the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, the effects of human activity in the world are discussed. At the beginning, the narrator reads an ad in a newspaper about a man looking for a student to teach. The narrator is at first disgusted because he has been searching for a teacher for years and now he finally finds someone begging for a student.

Roger Moore, a famous actor, once said: “The saddest sight these days is the image of hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped and lured into being child soldiers from the age of eight.” Many people do not know this but yes, children are being forced to become children soldiers to this day, in other parts of the world. These kids become brainwashed and mind warped from the gore and the fact that they are being forced to kill living people. The reader learned more about the situation from the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.