Reflection On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Bang! Bang! “At that instant several gunshots, which sounded like thunder striking the tin-roofed houses, took over town. The sound of guns was so terrifying it confused everyone” (Beah 23). In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys his amazing journey through war and hardship as a child soldier. Sierra Leone--a country on the western coast of Africa--was embroiled in a bloody civil war in the 1990’s. Battles multiplied as bloodshed abounded and as a child in Sierra Leone Ishmael Beah was forced to survive, find food, and face unimaginable dangers. Running from the battle front was also a routine ordeal. At age 13 Beah was captured by the military and brainwashed into using guns and drugs. As a child soldier he perpetrated and witnessed a great deal of violence. At 15 he was rescued and taken to a rehabilitation center. With time and continual treatment, Beah was able to recover, to some extent, and reconnect with his Uncle Tommy who adopted him. He was later chosen to speak to the United Nations in New York City about his experiences as a child soldier. When he returned to Sierra Leone, war broke out throughout in the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and he managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone, he conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

I do believe pure evil exists, some people were born to be evil. Most times it isn’t the evil persons fault, it is what they are used to and what they have been taught their whole life. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah pure evil does exist. The infamous rebels murder little kids and rape women and they don’t see anything wrong with it. It is their job. The rebels are taught to be evil people. “The rebels were still in my village, angrily cursing and shooting their guns. At some point they pretended to be gone, and someone escaped and went back to the village. They captured him and I could hear them beating him. A few minutes later, gunshots were heard, followed by thick smoke that rose toward the sky. The forest was lit up by the fire that was set in the village” (Beah 35).

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone the author reflects on nature and reveals how lonely and lost he truly is. The imagery also mirrors the hellish civil war in Sierra Leone. Initially, as Beah begins to walk down a road in hopes of finding a village he starts to notice all of the dead bodies he is stepping over. “I had passed through burnt villages where dead bodies of men, women, and children of all ages were scattered like leaves on the ground after a storm” (49). Beah illustrates a horrific image and compares it to something that almost anyone today can picture what it looks like after a storm where it is leaf after leaf lying on the road which is now happening in Sierra Leone except the rebels are the storm. Also, the people are the leaves, which creates a terrible image that he allowed other people to perceive by using something that we can connect with since when leaves have fallen from the tree they are dead, dried up, and are now doomed

During the civil war in Sierra Leone great numbers of people died and if they survived, traumatic images keep them company for the rest of their lives. Ishmael Beah, who was a child at the time, had to face the horrors of war. Beah’s innocence was stolen and replaced with the mentality of a soldier. Fortunately, he survived long enough to be rescued by UNICEF agents. He is rehabilitated but those memories cannot be forgotten and it is impossible for him to have another childhood.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot due to the fact that it influenced me in many ways. The first way this book influenced me was how strong hope is. We underestimate many times how strong hope is. We usually complain and complain and never even think about hope. We just get down on ourselves because of the things that we don’t like. Let’s face it, we are lazy. If Ishmael Beah would have been lazy when he was going through his journey than he wouldn’t have achieved what he has so far. He stated “My eyes widened, a smile forming on my face. Even in the middle of the madness there remained that true and natural beauty, and it took my mind away from my current situation as I marveled at this sight.” This shows that Ishmael Beah was able to find beauty but how? It was through hope. He always reminded himself of his childhood and he had hope that it would be the same as it was before by finding his family. We need to start to incorporate hope into our lives. Hope will allow us to survive the hard times that we are going through. Hope allowed Ishmael Beah to survive so why can’t it help us survive something that is not even close to the level of what he went through. A great example for students where they could use more hope is testing especially AP tests. How? How will this even produce positive effects? How will this even help the student? Hope will definitely allow you to get a better score. When you have hope in yourself then you feel better about yourself instantly. This

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.

Ishmael Beah was a child of war in Sierra Leone. His memoir retells his experiences being in the Sierra Leone army. At just twelve years old, Ishmael Beah’s homeland was infested with Foday Sankoh’s brutal army, who would stop at nothing to take control of Sierra Leone’s diamond mines. Beah then comes to explain his experience as a soldier and his killing spree. Although some may argue that his experiences are too graphic, William Boyd hints that readers should read Beah’s memoir.

Many and many child are forced to become soldiers and is becoming a major issue in the global level. A long way gone is a real life story that was faced by Ishmael Beah who became soldier even if he didn’t want to be. He wrote this book to show people around the world, the suffering that child goes through in the war country. He didn’t have any other choices. Ishmael Beah uses imagery, flashback, and narrative techniques to show the condition of the child soldiers is a major issue going on the world through the memoirs “A long way gone”.

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.

Ishmael Beah's 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone, tells the story of a boy who's not so lucky. The book records his real-life experiences as a 12-year-old caught up in a bloody civil war in his home country of Sierra Leone. When his village is attacked by rebel fighters, Ishmael loses his home and family. He's forced to wander around looking for food, hiding in the woods and trying to avoid getting gunned down by soldiers.

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his experience as a boy Solider in Sierra Leone. Throughout the hardship, challenges, and pain Ishmael endures the relationship and connection he has to nature remains consistent. His journey has three unique connections to nature and their influence on his transformation. The first is nature’s significance in the role of his grounding. Secondly, the beacon of hope it provides for Ishmael.

The autobiography written by Ishmael Beah, shows a lot of experience that tells the reader about the human condition and what it means to be a human being. In this story, Ishmael’s experience is displayed for an eye-opener to everyone about the cruel world around them. With that being said, not everyone is at fault, but this book shows a different perspective of a person with an extremely different culture from our own. For anyone that lives freely, this life story would make anyone feel guilty for not having to battle their way to adulthood. Ishmael’s experiences show how quickly a person’s life can change depending on the current circumstances. Ishmael had a very eventful and traumatizing life, one that took surviving, changing as a person, and a process of recovering. After reading this autobiography, Ishmael’s life story tells the public a lot about human condition and what it means to be a human.

This image of Ishmael Beah contains many visual techniques that creates an effect and accurately represents his story. Ishmael is the image’s focal point, his profile enhanced by the lighting, signifying that he is the main character and that he has a story to tell. However, even though he is the focal point of the picture, the children surrounding him still take up more than half of the image. This shows that it doesn’t only take a single person to create the whole picture and the presence of others completes the image as well. Similar to Ishmael Beah’s story, his friends and loved ones’ presence physically and mentally helped him at times when he was so close to giving up, and his story would not be complete without their presence.

The sacrifices we make today determines what we highly value in our life. Our willingness to sacrifice directly amplifies how desperate we are to achieve the outcome we desire. In the memoir A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah deliberately sacrifices his sole humanity in order to survive from the rebels. In other words, Ishmael suppresses his true emotions in order to remain alive. Thus, this explains why Ishmael joined the army and became a living killing machine.