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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier

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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.
In the beginning of this story Ishmael started as a boy who loved dancing and rap music, but then soon …show more content…

If it’s good, you’re the enemy towards someone else and that they can’t trust. However, if it’s bad, somebody is an enemy towards you and can’t trust them. For example, Ishmael said “This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy.” (CH. 6 PG. 37) Also another main focus could be, just because something you been through was bad, doesn’t mean that effect would be negative. Meaning, Ishmael didn’t know what to expect once becoming a boy soldier. However he was given drugs at a young age, to let nothing bother him and stopping him from doing his duties. At the end, going through rehab, yes, he was miserable, didn’t want to recover, but just wanted to be a part of violence again, he was able to bounce back to the person he was before. Then he started telling people his story because it inspired some and people were able to reflect on themselves. Just one cause can’t be a bad effect, because that cause can explain why you are the person today. Also during that cause, whatever you did doesn’t define you, the effect is the results of how you are that

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Soldier Boys was written by Dean Hughes. The book was published in 2001. The setting starts off with a couple of young boys who want to sign up for the war but their to young to sign up on their own so they have to have their parents permission to sign up. The book goes back an d forth between the americans and the germans because the book talks about both sides of the war. The book is fiction.

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The American Revolution marked the history of many heroic events that immaculately stand as true inspirations for the generations to come in the United States. Even today, the gallantry of a few soldiers that won independence for the country is not only kept in the hearts of the people but run in the American blood to demonstrate acts of valor at times of war and hardships. One such story recorded in the history dates back to 1776, about a sixteen-year old juvenile, Joseph Plumb Martin, joined the Rebel Infantry and recorded his tribulations about forty-seven years in a memoir titled as “A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier”. The book mainly focuses on the sufferings through the tough situation he went through.

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Throughout the book these quotes are what kept Ishmael striving to

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A long way home by Ishmael Beah. Ishmale Beah was born the 23 of November 1980 at Mogbwemo,Bonthe District, Sierra leone. the reason why he wrote Along Way Gone cause he is talking about as a child soldier during sierra Leones decade-long civil war from 1991 to 2002. this memoir, or collection of Beahs memories of that time, choronicles the attack on Beahs village, his subsequent confusion as he wanders the area looking for food and shelter, his indoctrination or brainwashing as an unwilling child soldier, and the period after his. The reason why escape from his home country to his arrival in the United States cause his place had got attacked by some soldiers.

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In the quickness of the attack, everyone panics in an attempt to flee the area in order to find safety. In this process, however, Ishmael is separated from his parents and tries to stay together with his older brother, Junior, and his friends. The group of boys wander from village to village in search of basic necessities of life including food, water, and shelter.

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Ishmael and other soldiers weren’t normal boys and “a change of environment wouldn’t immediately make us normal boys.”(164). The withdrawal period was very tough, Ishmael “craved cocaine and marijuana so badly”(167) that he had started to fight for no reason. Ishmael and his friends “beat up people from the neighborhood”(168) and sometimes even “threw stones at them.”(168). Ever since the war, Ishmael had lost his innocence and though he was in rehab, he was getting worse before getting better. The child soldiers have been ruthless and hate the civilians, who have no idea how bad the war has been and though innocent, the boys “kicked him relentlessly and left him lying on the floor bleeding and unconscious.”(169).

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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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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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Ishmael will

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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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He tries to think of his childhood but is unable to do so. “The war memories had formed a barrier” (Beah 149). Ishmael is unable to think of his life before being in hell, and his only memories are of war now. These memories of hell destroyed the memory of his family. Another effect of the war is the numbness to violence.

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This army that he is in becomes totally addicted and brainwashed, they do lots of drugs and believe the only way to avenge their family's deaths is kill the other side. These drugs they used were marijuana, cocaine and “brown brown”, which all “helped them” have the courage they needed to fight in war. Ishmael was a soldier for a while before he was then given to UNICEF, or United Nations Children's Fund, which then brought him to a rehabilitation center. Ishmael has lots of troubles when it comes to recognizing and accepting his past, or being able to conceptualize what the future might look like. He meets a nurse Etser at this rehabilitation center, which allows him to open paths, accept and forgive what he has done within the past, and have a better understanding of his

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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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Desire is the need for an object, a feeling or a person. One can have a desire for something that is essential for survival, such as water or food, but desire could be used to harm others or oneself. Through A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael’s perspective of desire was altered dramatically. These desires were changed from his surroundings or events that were taking place. In the book, Ishmael was easily manipulated by his desires.

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No child should ever have to find himself or herself in the middle of a bitter and bloody war, nor should he or she be wry about their future getting better in their own country. Unfortunately, in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah and Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane this is the sad reality. Both Ishmael Beah and Mark Mathabane highlight the theme of loss of innocence; Ishmael presents himself as a young child soldier, and Mathebane as a young boy struggling to fulfil his dreams as a fourth class citizen in apartheid South Africa, to tell similar stories of the difficulties of young children growing up with chaos within their country, yet ultimately finding the path to success. In a likely manner, societal oppression was a constant problem Mathabane and Beah had to deal with.

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