BOOK REPORT A Long Way Gone Part I: Summary A Long Way Gone is a memoir by Ishmael Beah about his experiences as a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The book begins with Beah's childhood in Sierra Leone, where he has a relatively peaceful life with his family until the war reaches his village.
In the memoir, A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael faced the tragic start of war in his home place, Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone on January of 1993. At just the age of twelve his village had been wrecked by rebels who had been going to other villages as well. It was just a normal happy day before everything had occurred. When the news spread, Ishmael, his brother, Junior, and friend, Talliou were at a rap performance. They left in search for money and any family, but everything was gone.
Ishmael became a victim of the war the moment he became a boy soldier. He was only a young teen at the time, where substances took over his life, as he states, “In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square,
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.
Within Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone we see the sierra leone civil war take over and consume a young boy’s life. During Ishmael’s life his settings change rapidly because of the war, this causes him to change with his surroundings. Throughout the book the 3 reoccurring themes has to be family, death and food.
A Long Way Gone is an autobiography written by Ishmael Beah, the book details his childhood throughout the Sierra Leon civil war. The book shows how you can turn an innocent child into a killing machine. We see both sides of the warring party do this with them drugging the children, turning them against the enemy with propaganda and threatening them with death. These are the factors that made a quarter of all the soldiers within this war under the age of eighteen.
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.
In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Beah is an adolescent whose innocence is stripped away at the hands of war. At the age of 13, Beah is forced to fight in the war in order to survive, or give up his battle and die. As a result, Beah ultimately decides to join the war. The harsh violence that Beah is exposed to strips him of his innocence and leaves him helpless and alone with his mind keeping him awake at night trying to unsee the cruelness he has been exposed to. Beah utilizes flashbacks, symbolism, and nature motifs in order to address the loss of his innocence throughout the novel.
War is a terrifying occurrence to be a part of but for most people, it is not part of their daily lives, and only know of it from history books and movies; But in Some countries, war is a part of people's daily lives. In his nonfiction memoir, Ishmael Beah develops his purpose to educate people on how war is not as cool as it seems through the use of being numb to emotion and drugs. Numbness to emotion is prominent in the novel. Ishmael has become a child soldier for the government and is now getting ready to kill a prisoner they captured. Ishmael writes, “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and [he] [grabs] the man's head and slit his throat…” “...
Ishmael Beah has experienced more violence than most ever will. The bone-chilling fact that he became a veteran in his adolescence shows this clearly. All of this is shown in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. The gruesomely-described violence in the novel causes many reactions in those who read of his suffering, myself included. Beah wrote this story about his life to show the world a hidden truth.
Memoir: A long way gone “The idea of death didn’t cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water” (127). At the beginning of the Memoir, A long way gone, Ishmael Beah was the average nice kid. He played with his friends, went to school, made music for fun and more.
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.
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
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.
Soon after Shakespeare started his life after the Globe, he simply disappeared from society and became a recluse. During his retirement, Shakespeare never wrote another play or sonnet again. Surely the man who spent so much time pouring his heart out in his plays would at least write in his pastime, as he had before. Along with his isolation, the children of William Shakespeare are said to be illiterate (Whalen, Richard F.) Clearly, the world renowned playwright would want his children to one day read his works. NEED TRANSITION.
