Similarities Between A Long Way Gone And Maus

“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.

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.

After the Holocaust on May 8th, 1945, a book called Maus was released which is revolved around survival. The author, Art Spiegelman intended the story was to reflect upon his past and express his feelings world how he had to deal life was at the time.The book is a story of Art’s father named Vladek, he tells his point-of-view to the world to show multiple struggles he had to withstand. The theme of Art Spiegelman’s book Maus is survival; Art Spiegelman shows the theme of survival by using tone, mood, and point-of-view throughout the graphic novel. Vladek is the main character of Maus and shares his point of view. Vladek tells a true story about how he survived the Holocaust and the things he had to accomplish to make it through alive. This book is based on a true story of what had happened during the Holocaust.

Throughout the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael faces a plentiful amount of challenges and conflicts. In the book there are four main conflicts that Ishmael faces and overcomes. These conflicts include Ishmael running away from the war, his family, and his friends, Ishmael's entire family dying and him becoming a soldier at the age of 13, Ishmael going through rehabilitation, and Ishmael trying to move to a safer area when war meets Freetown.

The book Maus is written by Artie Spiegelman. Artie’s father is a Holocaust survivor, and a prisoner of war; this is the main event of the story. Artie uses imagery in the form of animals to display race in the graphic novel of Maus. The survivors of the Holocaust are burdened with mental disorders; Artie acknowledges the trauma and the effect it has on the survivors as well as the people around them. Artie uses figurative language and imagery to demonstrate relationships and mental health issues.

“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

In the book, A Long Way Gone, there is an array of different tones. The author uses them to shine light on the central theme and main idea of the story. The tone is important because it emphasizes the emotion of the text and the story being told. The author, Ishmael Beah, who is also the main character in the book has had a rough life. He grew up in the city of Mattru Jong, which is in the country of Sierra Leone. War had swept over the land changing everything and everyone. Beah was forced into being a child soldier at the age of twelve. By looking at the book, A Long Way Gone, one can see that Beah was put through things that no person should go through and it has shaped his entire world, with death, loss, and pain.

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.

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.

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.

I really enjoyed A Long Way Gone. Reading this type of book was new to me, because I wouldn’t typically choose a book like this for myself, but that did not make it any less of a great book to me. I cannot relate to the book of A Long Way Gone, because what Ishmael went through in his country is very likely to never happen to me. Though, I find it astonishing in many ways how such a young child went through such trauma so early in his life. I have noticed how the thought of Ishmael’s family was a driving force throughout the entire book. When the war first started and he was separated from his family, Ishmael always thought of them, their whereabouts and hoped to find them. Then, when he became a child soldier and killing became easy to him, his

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.

The book I chose to read for my summer reading assignment was A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. By judging this book by its title, I knew it was going to be a nonfiction piece focusing on one person’s experience on this gruesome topic. I expected this novel to graphic and eye opening about the life of a child soldier.

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

Life is full of many unknowns. It is unknown what will happen tomorrow, what will happen next week, next month, next year, and twenty years from now. Some unknowns are negligible. For instance, like what will be served for dinner next Sunday. But some unknowns are life-changing. Ishmael Beah’s and Mariatu Kamara’s unknowns were the wars that lead to the demolition of their childhoods. But, both fortunate enough to survive their civil wars, Beah and Kamara have written memoirs of their experiences in the war, Beah, as a child soldier in the war, and Kamara, as a child victim of the war. This provides vastly different perspectives, however, due to Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone containing more psychological and physical aspects of the war, it