Theme Of Hope In A Long Way Gone

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.

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.

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 child soldier Ishmael Beah once said, “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past.” This represented what Ishmael had to go through during the war. The Sierra Leone war began in 1991. This war was fought by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and the National Sierra Leone Army Force. As a consequence, 10,000 child soldiers were recruited, along with them there Ishmael Beah. Beah was only 13 years old when he was forced to become a child soldier by the rebels. In addition, rebel superiors brainwashed Ishmael, along with the rest of the recruited kids by inducing them into drugs such as marijuana, brown-brown and amphetamines. Consequently, a lot of problems were

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

“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

“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

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.

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.

A final theme tells us when everything else disappears, there is always love. Ishmael learns this the hard way. He has a kind of family unit with the soldiers that actually carries over into the love and friendship between him and Alhaji. Then, there is the love of Uncle Tommy and his family and their willingness to make Ishmael a son and a brother. Finally, there is the love of people like Esther and Laura who accept him unconditionally and welcome him into their homes when he most needed help and love.

Ishmael Beah shows many different traits in “A Long Way Gone”. Ishmael is a victim and a victimizer. War can make you do many things. It can make you do good things and it can make you do bad things. War can do good things for you and bad things to you. War can change how you think and act. It can change your morals. War does many things to people. Ishmael was a victim, because his family was killed from it. And his whole childhood was messed up from it. All his innocence was taken away he had to grow up fast. It turned him into a survivor. The war also turned a kid into a killer. It turned into a kid who would never hurt a fly into a person who enjoys torturing people. War changed ishmael into a victimiser, because he tortured people instead

Much like Sierra Leone, Ishmael is war torn over the two sides of himself, the child and the soldier in him. This is evident in the lines, “I distanced myself from the games in the village and sat behind the houses staring into open space until my migraine subsided” and “I could become angry, yes, begin to visualize scenarios of shooting or stabbing a rebel.” These describe Ishmael’s confliction within himself of being a child and being a soldier. It was near the end when Ishmael’s war was finally won. This is evident in the line, “The war memories had formed a barrier that I had to break in order to think about any moment before the war.” This line shows Ishmael realizing how to learn to be a child again. Therefore, the loss of his home, his country and his childhood had formed Ishmeal into the person he is

To begin with, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah portrays many themes throughout the book. Hope for survival is a theme used to show how much the violence has changed people and how they have to cling to hope to survive. To regain hope Ishmael remembers what his father used to say “If you

When I first started researching the author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, I was completely amazed at his ability to overcome the mountainous obstacles he has had to face in his life. Growing up in a third world country is challenging enough, but to try and survive a civil war and at the same time be forced into becoming a soldier seems almost unimaginable. On top of all of this, he had to provide for his family and fight several of his friends from the same tribe who had also been forced into becoming soldiers themselves. Despite all of this adversity, in the end, Ishmael is able to escape death, and capture, and eventually flee Sierra Leone to find a new home at a rehabilitation center in New York City. After reaching this center, Ishmael is able to share his own incredible story, along with other children forced into war with members at a convention at the United Nations.

In A Long Way Gone, the author Ishmael Beah laments about how “the war had destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people.” He elaborates on these experiences and sufferings throughout the memoir, A Long Way Gone. He experiences these things when he tried to escape war, when he fought as child soldier, and when he got dismissed and sent to a rehabilitation center.