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A Long Way Gone: A 12 Year-Old Boy Soldier

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A Long Way Gone is about a 12 year old boy soldier who struggles to overcome the Sierra Leone Civil War and get his normal life back after he enlists into the army because his village was starting to get attacked by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and that was the only way someone could survive. Due to being a child soldier, he was exposed to many bad situations for kids his age. One of those situations were drugs. When he was age 16, a group of men by the organization of UNICEF rescued some boys, whom one of them was Ishmael. Ishmael and the rest were taken to a rehabilitation center where they ended up causing a lot of trouble to the staff. Everyone was sort of tired of them, expect for a nurse by the name of Esther. Ishmael suffered
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The impact of war can have very harmful effects on people, especially children. In “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, he explains the war of Sierra Leone from his point of view. The tragedy of losing his family, becoming a boy soldier, and the effects of war is said throughout the book, making it an interesting story to read. But, while Ishmael explains what he went through, it is hidden that other people were affected by the actions he took. Although Ishmael did play a victimizer, he was also a victim at the same time.

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A Long Way Gone’s main purpose is hope. This narrative shows the tragic experiences Ishmael Beah had to endure during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Ishmeals reframed these events through courage, faith, and belief. A Long Way Gone the story shows that hope is an integral component of survival which is portrayed by Ishmael successfully escaping and enduring the horrific war.

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The book “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” is an autobiography about a boy named Ishmael who went through so much at a young age. This book should be read because it’s a story you could relate to and give you a perspective of how society is today than it was before and how it has affected people across the world. On the (front cover of the book) Carolyn See from the Washington Post says “Everyone in the world should read this book… We should read It to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” She’s right, reading this book will provide you with facts you never known and could change the way you see things today.

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According to Google, War is a state of armed conflict between different countries or groups within a nation or state. These armed conflicts are mostly caused by the government. During this time, the government can control you, the civilian, and you don’t even realize it. How may they control you, you may ask? By propaganda.

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Estefany Ibarra Honors English 4 8 March 2024 Decisions May Cause Risk Risky decisions are a fundamental part of an individual's journey throughout life. Our decisions challenge us in many ways, but often lead us to growth. A Long Way Gone is a narrative book about a boy who writes about his life while he was recruited to the armed forces in 1993. Ishmael Beah wrote about his experiences and the trauma he went through while fighting in the Civil War in Sierra Leone.

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Carson Edwards English I Ms. Thaden 10 February 2023 Family Provides Strength Twelve-year-old soldiers, blinded by cocaine, violence, and war, can only find strength through the love of family. Ishmael Beah, in his book, A Long Way Gone, is struggling through the war but keeps going toward the ultimate goal of seeing his family again, proving how the unfailing love of family will give one the strength to persevere through the hardest times. This book shows the instinctual longing for the family during times of need. Beah remembers a quote from his father during the beginning half of his war journey.

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A Long Way Gone is an autobiography that shows his younger days and the transition of him turning into a child solider. In the story the military uses tactics to manipulate the boys such as anger, drugs, and fear to transform the boys into being child soldiers. The military use anger to manipulate the boys by making the boys blame the rebels for everything “ Visualize the banana tree as the enemy, the rebels who killed your parent your family and those who are responsible for everything that happened to you” (112). With all the built up anger that the boys have it was easy for them to manipulate them because with the loss of their family and friends they already hate the rebels and having them stabbing the banana tree was a way for them to

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In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues. During the war, many soldiers struggled with mental health issues that persisted after they came home.

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At the age of 13 till the age of 16 the author, Ishmael Beah, pulls himself through many terrible conflicts in Sierra Leone. The author uses conflict to show his readers the realism of his story. By using conflict in many different ways, it allows readers to gain an understanding of how Ishmael struggles changed his life for worse and for better. By using person vs person, person vs society, person vs self, and person vs nature conflict the author is opening doors allowing readers to get a full understanding of Ishmael 's challenges of a life in war. The most commonly seen conflict in ‘A Long Way Gone’ is person vs society.

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Loss, anger, violence “I imagined capturing several rebels at once, locking them inside a house, sprinkling gasoline on it, and tossing a match” (Beah 113). In Sierra Leone’s civil war, families were torn apart, entire generations lost, these events caused strife in the hearts of the survivors, who searched for revenge. In the memoir A Long Way Gone, a young boy named Ishmael Beah, has his life turned inside out as he tries to survive the civil war in his country. In the country Sierra Leone, Ismael Beah has decided to travel to a nearby town to perform in a talent show when he gets news of a rebel attack on his home. His brother Junior, friends Gibrilla, Talloi, Khalilou and Kaloko and him try to get back, but it is too dangerous to go back

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In the book, Soldier Boys, by Dean Hughes two boys who are on opposite sides of the war tell their struggles and stories of battle in the War and how their two different lives collide together. The author of the book, Dean Hughes, has spent 7 years doing research on World War II and finding information about the war. Dean Hughes has interviewed war veterans, studied newspapers that were written in the time of World War II, and read hundreds of books like, “The Burden of Hitler 's Legacy” by Alfons Hecks to help his understanding of this time period and events. With all this information and facts he collected, he wrote the book, Soldier Boys. The years that World War II took place was in between 1939 to 1945 and around those years the holocaust

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Ishmael Beah’s Memoir, A Long Way Gone is appropriate for Sterling High School’s English IV curriculum because the memoir makes connections to the real world and readers can relate to the content of the story. A big part of teaching is making students aware of what is going on in the world around them. A Long Way Gone introduces students to a glimpse of what it is like surviving in a war during teenage years. Many readers have not been through war and don’t believe it is happening unless it is right in front of their faces.

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Additional Activity 1 In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the reader can gather certain information about the story he told. The point of view of his story truly affects the reader’s understanding. Also, Beah included details that defined his experience and changed his life. He also wrote his memoir with an emotion that drove the story.

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A Long Way Gone is nonfiction story and true story of a boy named Ishmael Beah who is also the author himself. It is about how he becomes a boy soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone. When he was 12 years old, his village was attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends; which at the time he and his friends thought was cool because it came from America. With the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander to all different villages to find food and shelter. They soon begin to struggle to survive, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never thought of doing, such as stealing food from children.

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The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone. Beah uses the theme of family and love, along with the use of symbolism and other literary devices, to inform a larger audience of the issues that he and others had to face while trying to survive in a war zone. A Long Way Gone, an autobiographical memoir, written by Ishmael Beah, takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of their civil war.

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