Research Paper On Ishmael Beah

In the memoir A long Way Gone Ishmael Beah states “When I was young, my father used to say, “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” (Beah 54). Throughout the war Ismael Beah survives many difficult situations, that make him think is it worth it to keep running. Ishmael Beah, always remembers what his dad said to motivate him to try and keep surviving the war. Ishmael Beah used adaptability, the kindness of others and bravery to overcome the adversities of the war in Sierra Leone.

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of these child soldiers  , Ishmael Beah is a child who lived most of his childhood in the war   . He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words according to  http://www.alongwaygone.com/index.html and his memoir “A Long Way Gone”. The war had made ishmael have perseverance  in the long run , inference that he was brainwashed by the war and that ishmael was a very hopeful child always wishing for better days.

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.

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.

Ishmael Beah changes a lot once he becomes a soldier and when he does he gets manipulated.“So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could but I didn't feel better.” This quote shows how he has changed because his first character he was scared to even see or hold a gun. After the lieutenant gives him a name and encourages him and praises him for doing these types of things he thinks its ok. “The prisoner leaned his weight on me as he gave out his last breath.I dropped him on the ground and wiped my bayonet on him”. This quote shows how different he is he doesn't even flinch when the prisoner is watching him while he kills him. He doesn't look away is sickness when his blood spills and even is happy he didnt the fastest and gets rewarded. He has changed significantly but once he is separated from corruption he changes

Ishmael, in A Long Way Gone was made boy soldier. Ishmael went through many commands to hurt people and try to bring an anonymous message. Treating people with injustice without knowing the reason why he was even doing it. Showing corpses, dead people before torturing them and then killing them. Becoming brainwashed with all the task he was being told to do he thought that this was his life. Making games out of the torture and killing with his friends. Slowly giving up on trying to get away from the rebels. “People were terrified of boys our age” (Beah 37). Having everyone still around scared of him, not doing anything to help him, but just trying to get away from him.

Violence affects people in many ways, including how it can desensitize cruelty by means of images in the media and exposure, and how this affects our society as a whole. Violence is defined by, “the unlawful exercise of physical force or intimidation by the exhibition of such force”. In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah we see a boy go from innocent into a soldier killing hundreds of people a day. Issues of violence our throughout our culture today, like the effects of violent movies and games in adolescents. Ishmael Beah went through something a boy should never go through, a world full of violence that left an impact on him forever.

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

When Ishmael came to the States, he started raising awareness on the issue of child soldiers. He has spoken all over the world on behalf of UNICEF, the Council on Foreign Relations, and more. He speaks about what child soldiers go through, and why an end needs to be brought to the use of child soldiers. At a marine base in Virginia he spoke with the soldiers on what to do if they encountered a child while in combat. He will continue to inform people on this topic because most people are unaware that it is happening. Ishmael hopes that by raising awareness people can fight

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah encourages the opinion that everyone is responsible for his/her own actions in all cases. Beah proves this opinion to be true through death, thievery, and violence.

In the story, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael’s life experiences while escaping the war show how everything in life should be cherished, because one day those great features are there but they can easily be taken away. Ishmael Beah has experienced the traumatizing effect of war and how it can tear someone apart and morph them into a completely different person. This happened to Ishmael himself. He was brainwashed and his mind was molded into believing that revenge is the answer to the deaths of his family members. This essentially is why he puts his safety and wellbeing at risk. He goes from being a twelve year old boy who heard stories of the war, but never imagined it chasing after him, to running away from this inescapable war only

Ishmael Beah had a really tough life throughout his childhood and teenage years. In his literary work, A Long Way

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.

In the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah states that his life’s journey has been a huge obstacle, but has learned to overcome that struggle by venting while the two contradictory sides continue their battling. Beah accomplishes his goal of explaining to the reader his point of view through the use of rhetorical questions, scenic narration, and parallelism. Ishmael Beah’s apparent purpose is to share personal accounts of his life with his fellow country men, in a country where war affects people to a level beyond the imagination. He is able to apply his purpose using a grotesque and bitter tone. Beah approaches his audience of ordinary people in this manner in order to vent his feelings about war by

Ishmael is a wonderful young man who becomes a victim of a devastating civil war in Sierra Leone. Like most other civilians, he is a victim of a terror campaign on the part of both sides of the war. Millions of civilians die in this conflict and in that way, Ishmael is lucky, because he lives. However, he comes out of the experience as a boy soldier badly damaged. He has lost his family to the rebel atrocities just before he has the chance to be reunited. He sees friends and comrades die the most horrible deaths before his eyes, he lives in horrible conditions day in and day out, and most of the time, he sees little hope that his existence will ever change.