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A Long Way Gone, By Ishmael Beah

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Who is Ishmael Beah? Why is he important in Sierra Leone history? Well, Ishmael Beah is the author of A Long Way Gone, and, more importantly, former child soldier of Sierra Leone. A Long Way Gone is an autobiography of how Beah faced the violence of Sierra Leone. Today, he stands to help children avoid the vision of war; to protect children’s rights. Babes in Arms is a story written by Boyd that explains Beah’s life and horror. With all the violence Beah witnessed, the evidence in A Long Way Gone proves the war in Sierra Leone impacted Beah’s life in several ways. For starters, Beah was an orphan at twelve years old after he was separated from his family and never felt safe throughout this “journey”. It is stated that, “...in Beah’s case the arrival of the rebels in his small town meant sudden separation from his parents….”(Boyd 302) The rebels were obviously armed and dangerous, so Beah had to escape his town and leave his parents behind as a “sacrifice”. He had to live with other boys without the protection of his parents. This makes him wander off alone, trying to survive. He had to go through many problems without the aid and love of his parents. …show more content…

Just like Beah, many boys around Beah’s age left their parents to survive. However, “These terrified youngsters wandered aimlessly along jungle tracks, starving and desperate, harassed and suspected as they scrounged for food….” (Boyd 302) As these horrified young boys wandered scared and helpless, they were hungry and often fought in order for food. Beah and a bunch of other boys were accused and harassed due to all the stress they were in. It was hard for him to cooperate when he was the subject of argument among the other

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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is the true story of Ishmael Beah’s, the author and narrator, experience leading into and eventually becoming a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s military during the Sierra Leonean Civil War. The story begins with Beah, then a twelve year old child, leaving his home village of Mattru Jong to attend a talent show where he and other boys, including his brother Junior, would hip-hop dance to their favorite music genre, rap. On his way he encounters his grandmother’s village where she convinces the boys to stay the night, in the morning he is stunned to learn that Mattru Jong was attacked by the Royal United Front (RUF) and that the people who were in the village were now dead or refugees. After this, Ishmael

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This led to Beah and his family separating and doing anything to survive. Beah experienced many terrifvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vfdv dfv df v fdv dfv fdv dfv dfmv mdf vmdf vm dfvmfvdfvdfvying moments during the civil war in Sierra Leone and he helps us see what happens to him

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579 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael Beah has experienced extreme hardships ever since he was a little boy. Growing up in Sierra Leone during war causes Ishmael’s life to revolve around such. In the nonfiction book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldiers, Ishmael Beah shares personal accounts of what it was like growing up in a period of violence and separation. Ishmael and his family live in a small village called Mattru Jong. When Ishmael is twelve-years-old, his village is attacked by rebels.

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A Long Way Gone is a memoir written with Ishmael Beah’s memories of the civil war that happened in his hometown, Sierra Leone. Beah’s determination for survival and use of descriptive imagery of the war gives us a chance to feel like we’re actually in the war with him. Ishmael Beah was only a twelve year old boy when the war came to his village. Because he lost his family in the war, Ishmael had to learn how to survive on his own along with some other boys. Together, they took care and watched out for each other in the wilderness while trying to find a safe place to hide from the rebels, the people attacking their country.

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A Long Way Gone: inaugurates a world where young men, like Ishmael Beah, are forced to participate in the civil war of Sierra Leone causing them to lose their families. This book definitely outlines the importance of family through Ishmael’s experiences of adaptation, i s o l a t i o n , a n d m e m o r i e s o f h i s p a s t . A L o n g W a y G o n e t e a c h e s u s a l e s s o n t o a p p r e c i a t e t h e family we have, compared to the loneliness Ishmael once felt as a young

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shmael Beah’s Journey to Healing A Long Way Home, an autobiography written by Ishmael Beah describes an unthinkable trauma-filled journey of a young boy. From the beginning of the book, twelve-year-old Beah is faced with difficulties when he is forced to flee his small village in Sierra Leone. After which, he wanders the land which is now clouded by war and violence. By the age of thirteen, he was admitted into the government’s army and was made into a boy soldier that committed horrific deeds.

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A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a boy soldier is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. This novel is about Ishmael's first hand experience of the Civil war in sierra leone between Mar 23, 1991 to Jan 18, 2002 .I feel  the book gave a genuine glimpse of war and how Ishmael stayed alive as a refugee and showed what he had to do in order to survive in this war. The memoir also showed the corruption of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who with the support of the Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, attempted to overthrow the government. However, a messenger from the RUF said that they were on their side and would like to be welcomed.

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War, a state of armed conflict between different nations, states, or groups. Although small, this three letter word signifies so much more than a conflict for those involved. It symbolizes the loss of hope, faith, family, a home, someone’s childhood, and most importantly the feeling of safety. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, is an eye opener to those who have been lucky enough to escape the clutches of war. The book describes Beah’s struggle during the war in Sierra Leone, where at the age of twelve he joined the “army”.

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In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah decides to write about his time as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone. When he made the decision to publish his story, Beah was trying to tell three main messages to his readers. He was first attempting to get the message out to the world that conflict in Sierra Leone was a serious issue, given that at the time that he wrote his book, most Americans couldn’t even locate Sierra Leone on a map; he also tried to show how human nature can cause people to do uncharacteristically terrible things in desperate situations. Finally, Beah was also trying to portray the message that despite the immense, grief, guilt, anger, and pain that people can feel after being affected by a violent situation, a person can always be healed, if enough work is put into helping them, no matter how damaged that

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1387 Words | 6 Pages

The book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, the main character Ismael Beah tells a story of his first hand account of Sierra Leone’s civil war. Ismael Beah was a boy soldier who went from village to village with his brother and some friends in search of food and shelter. Beah was eventually brainwashed into thinking that what the group was doing would make up for his own family’s death. While his is fighting for the government he is heavily drugged to the point that he believes that what he is doing is the right thing. His lieutenant ended up letting him go with UNICEF so they can have better lives.

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1749 Words | 7 Pages

In “ A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael recalls moments in his life where he experienced servere pain, felt distress and depression. The book expresses many themes including: “war is terrible” and “there is always love and friendship”. Ishmael stuggled to gain back his childhood, which was now filled with war memories, in hopes of starting a new life away from the war. Ishmael thought to himself “This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy”(37).

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1110 Words | 5 Pages

Not experiencing war is a luxury many people unfortunately do not get; however, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, lives and survives the war, though not without heartache. With war there is always fear, death, and hell. Ishmael Beah proves war is hell through the killing of civilians, the distrust, and the after effects of the war. Ishmael proves war is hell through the killing of civilians. Many innocent bystanders of the war are forced out of their homes, made to run for their lives.

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777 Words | 4 Pages

Gabe Tonucci 8/20/2015 “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past”(Beah 20). After a month of living in the relative safety of New York City, Ishmael Beah haunted by the events that he witnessed and took part in during the war. No one in New York could possibly understand what he had to go through, leaving all these thoughts trapped inside of his head. Not helping his situation is the fact that every night he tosses and turns from having nightmares we witnessed the RUF preform and the horrible things he did himself. He is a young man divided against himself, as his country had been divided against itself - in both cases, due to the rebels' violent actions.

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339 Words | 2 Pages

The concept of family changes throughout Beah's experience in the war. At first, his family consists of his mother, father, and two brothers. This is when he is very young. His parents divorce, leaving him with his brother and his father, along with a stepmother. As the war begins to affect Beah, his father is left behind.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

The way Beah explained what happened to him, he did it in a sad way. My response to the writer is that I feel sorry for him. I cannot relate to him in any way since I have never been exposed to war and even been a soldier fighting in it. He was strong through the hardest part of his life; the actual war itself, rehabilitation, and ultimately escaping Freetown, Sierra Leone to eventually fly over to New York and start a new life. Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, replays a part of Beah’s life that will always be very vivid to him.

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