What Is The Loss Of Innocence In A Long Way Gone

The mother clung to her child and rocked her. She was in too much pain and shock to shed tears.” This excerpt “plagued” Ishmael’s mind as he put it and brought to the boys attention that there was no possible way their families could still be in Mogbwemo and that they needed to return to Mattru Jong for safety. This is definitely a key passage because before this point, Ishmael had no real understanding of the gruesome, violent, and upsetting occurrences that war brought. He had never experienced war in real life and wasn’t used to it at all.

I find the fact that they were able to even smile during this morbid time was extremely uplifting. To still have such spirit when so much had been taken away from them is astonishing. This shows so much character in Ishmael, how he does not let the war get to his head. He still preserves whatever happiness he has left. It is so important not to take life for granted, as shown in this memoir. In one instant Ishmael was a boy, in another he was a boy soldier. He manages to find joy in a terrible time.

A Long Way Gone takes place in Sierra Leone, where the war had started. In first person point of view, Ishmael describes his experiences with his brother and friends while they were making their way to Mattru Jong, when they were informed of the rebels reaching Mogbwemo. With just him, his brother, and their friends, they were to work together and do whatever they can to survive the war. Things didn't go as planned as

"We went from children who were afraid of gunshots to now children who were gunshots… Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water" (Barnett, 2012). Ishmael Beah, the main character and writer of the novel A Long Way Gone is a clear example of the loss of innocence that war causes. During the Sierra Leone’s civil war, Beah is recruited as a child soldier and eventually turned into a cold-blooded killer with no sign of naivety in his body. At a tender age, Beah is trained to kill, mutilate and terrify dozens of people, which causes him to be bared to a flood of disturbing scenes; transform into a murderer; loose all sense of emotion; and in time, lose his innocence. In the novel A Long Way Gone, the reader can view the multiple events

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.

The more people Ishmael loses, the less he has to fight for- the less he has to hope for. Upon finding his family’s ashes, Ishmael is enraged- not hopeless. Ishmael’s hope is alive, but shrinking as Gasemu indicates when he says, “Your forehead used to glow naturally when you were just a child … We thought it was because you were happy all the time. Your mother said you even smiled when you slept. But when you started your troublesomeness and were angry, your forehead glowed even more…And here you are, it isn’t shining anymore,” (Beah 92). Ishmael’s forehead did not glow because he was mad or sad or embarrassed or happy. Ishmael’s forehead glowed because he was passionate and hopeful. The angrier he got when he was younger, the more his forehead glowed seeing as he believed in his anger. Despite the fact that his hope shrank when he was faced with the death of his family, the threat of the rebels, and the fear of dying, these events did not destroy Ishmael’s hope- Ismael’s hope begins its descent to nothingness when he becomes a child soldier and, consequently, a drug addict. When Ishmael no longer mourns the death of human life, his hope is lost. When Ishmael cannot care less if he lives or dies, his hope is lost. When he would rather continue killing as

Sometime in life, it is unavoidable that one will lose one’s innocence in their life. Such as how cruel the world is. The novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie loses his own innocence in the Holocaust. Jew’s were brought to the concentration camp. Since Elie is a Jew, he was forced to come. When working, Elie sees how poorly the Germans treat the Jews. Since the death of his father, Elie loses his hope in life. Elie is impacted by the loss of innocence in three ways by losing his faith in his future, loses faith in God, and when he has no passion and sympathy by the deaths around him.

The holocaust and the war in Sierra Leone had death rates from 70 thousand -6 million, all of which were innocent people (Szor 3). With so many people dying, it was hard for people to stay sane and to survive these harsh conditions with little guidance from parents. Both Ishmael and Elie were stripped from their home and families, forcing these boys to fend for themselves and try to stay alive long enough to tell their stories. Night talks about some of the most horrific experiences in human history and how they can cause peoples’ only concern to be that of survival. Everything that used to matter to Elie such as faith, hope, and his father, soon start to wither away when survival chances become slim. (Winters). Elie turns into a robot that doesn’t feel any emotion anymore, he just glimpses through life.

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

While living in Freetown he had a girlfriend who wanted to know about his past. He would not tell her what has happened to him, so she broke up with him. Nowadays he is more open to sharing his experiences, but only when necessary. He does not tell people what happened to him openly, it brings back bad memories from the war. Writing A Long Way Gone allowed Ishmael to become a bit more willing to recall his time in the war. Sometimes, the smallest things would trigger a bad memory for him. Now he is able to bring back the memories of the war without bringing back all of the pain those memories caused him. Writing allowed him to become a bit more open with 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.

Imagine you hear gunshots echoing through the woods. You begin to see soldiers running towards you with overwhelming aggression. You begin to run as fast as you can and flee from the terrifying men. A Long Way Gone , written by Ishmael Beah is a story that was written of the author's experiences in the Sierra Leone civil war. Ishmael was constantly faced with dangers and the terrors that came from this civil war. Ishmael begins happy with his family but by the end he has lost his family and has the traumatic experience of being a child soldier. In A Long Way Gone the consequences of war shown include, a change in native culture, loss of family, and death and injury to innocent people. These consequences were shown throughout the story and the civil war.

In Night, Elie displays that he has lost his innocence when he condemns God “for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar”(Wiesel ) This quote expresses Elie’s realization that God is likely not present and is sinister if he is. The horrific experiences that Elie is subject to causes Elie to grow up and relinquish his innocence. This ultimately results in Elie losing his humanity and emotion due to the desensitization from the horrors he witnesses. In addition, Life is beautiful contrasts this innocence development by doing the contrary and restraining Joshua from losing his innocence. Joshua’s father convinces him that the camp is merely a game and the one who acquires the most points will be victorious. These results in Joshua being oblivious to the brutal environment and enables him to retain his innocence. Since Joshua is completely unaware, he does not develop as a character in any observable