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Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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One of the most famous male child soldiers was Ishmael Beah who fought in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah later wrote a novel titled A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier in 2007. In this novel, Beah describes his personal experiences in a nonconventional military unit and its affects it had physically and mentally. The grave detail of the novel enables the readers to fully understand the seriousness of this phenomenon. Beah experienced many life changing events in his life beginning at the age of twelve. First, Beah was detached from his biological parents in the year 1993. The rebel army referred to as Revolutionary United Front attacked Beah’s town such as killing and raping civilians. In response, Beah ran away from home …show more content…

The first battle that the children participated in marked a new, horrific beginning for them and even the end for some. Beah goes into grave detail about this new beginning in his book. He describes that the most terrifying moment of the first battle was waiting in silence in the bushes. He states that the silence tormented him and his friends and it caused his veins to project out of his body. The next moment Beah, states that the commander yelled “fire” to everyone. However, Beah was unable to force himself to shoot his gun that they had given him. The commander then yelled “retreat” since the other unit commenced to throwing grenades at them. The preceding event that happened changed Beah’s perspective on his life and the life of the others around him. Beah suddenly felt blood on his face and in this shocked moment he accidentally tasted the blood. He then heard someone screaming for his mother with a vain and pleading voice. He looked over and saw his friend Josiah’s body on the ground. His body and the ground was covered in blood, his eyes were filled with tears, and his spine was …show more content…

As a result, he killed every person he saw move an inch out of pure anger. Beah’s army unit also frequently used drugs especially the leaders of the group. The usage of drugs helped Beah cope with his feelings of killing people. Beah experienced many other battles and wars with other groups through out his life. One particular occurred when he was at the age of 15 in 1996. In that year, four men who were dressed in blue suits arrived at the army base that Beah was stationed at. The four men selected him and one of his friends out of a line of several boys. The men lead him and his friend to a truck outside with no given explanation. On the ride back, one of the other boys in the truck noticed that Beah and his friend were from the Revolutionary United Front. In response the boy grabbed Beah’s neck and began to cut his oxygen off by choking his neck. Beah could not reach his weapon and instead elbowed the boy with the hopes that the boy’s grip on his neck would weaken. The boy in fact weakened his group; however, before Beah could attack the boy. A rebel boy grabbed Beah’s hand and sliced it with a

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When he was twelve, Beah was separated from his family when the rebels attacked his village. Beah’s journey to escape the rebel forces led him through areas where he witnessed the horrors of war and it led him to war as a child soldier. Life as a child soldier left a deep impact on Ishmael Beah. Although, he recovered physically and mentally as children often do, Beah’s writing shows his difficulty in expressing his emotions.

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A Long Way Gone Book Review Ishmael Beah is a well-known author of the memoir A Long Way Gone which is about a teen Sierra Leonean boy from a small village of Mattru Jong who went through the terrors of war. The book shows how the civil war happening in Sierra Leone at the time affected the lives of many children and families who had no food, water or hope to live. With the rebels raiding towns disguised as civilians, people lost trust in others, even kids. The people were constantly tortured until they said something and were thrown out of villages.

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This can be seen when Beah says, “Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all of the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by the war began flashing in my head.” (Beah 119) Second, Beah became angry, infuriated even, with the war, and it only made his lust for revenge even stronger. With his anger, the fear that he had in the beginning had vanished, as seen when he says,

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(Beah 113) While the passage above is merely a thought, Beah, according to his story, has committed acts far more violent and gruesome. If accurate, his memoir would provide unprecedented insight into the life of a child solider. However, the validity of his claims has been challenged

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Now, back in his home village, he struggled to reconcile his experiences with the everyday life around him. One of the biggest challenges Beah faced was reconnecting with his family. He writes about the awkwardness and discomfort of trying to rebuild relationships that had been shattered by the war. He felt like a stranger in his own home and struggled to communicate with his parents and siblings.

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As an exposure to guns and violence as a young child, Beah seems to still be haunted by his childhood. Not only because he had to decide between killing or being killed but, because, he had to become a killer to survive.

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Beah was exposed to and committed many offenses such as killing, stealing, and many forms of trauma. After a few long years, sixteen-year-old Beah is taken out of the war by UNICEF and sent to a rehabilitation center. Eventually, Beah is helped to find

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The quote also shows how Beah’s smarts are what led him to being freed from the army. He knew he would not make it if he did not join the army. Since he had no family, there was no food for him. In joining the army, Beah learned skills and lessons that he later used to achieve his goals. This motivation helped bring Beah forward in life and helped him unlearn the bad things from the

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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)

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The military leaders begin to manipulate Ishmael before he even enters the army. When the lieutenant confronts Ishmael, Beah is given an “option” to join the army, or to leave the village. Ishmael joins the army, as he expresses that he had no choice at all. The lieutenant shows Ishmael the body of a diseased man, who was said to have left the village, disregarding the warning from the leader. The lieutenant says that he “decided to show [Ishmael], so that [he could] fully understand the situation [they were] in” (108).

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There was a moment in which a switch flicked after his first kill and killing became a lot easier. While in the army Beah was on many drugs including the Zaza, Brown Brown (Nose candy mixed with boom boom powder), and Pookie. Furthermore, Beah's narrative shows that moral judgments cannot always be made from an outside perspective. Those who have yet to experience war may not fully understand the ethical complexities that arise in such situations. Sympathy is very important when it comes to making moral assessments of others.

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On Saturday, March 23 the Sierra Leone army came under attack from rebel forces from within the country called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a ruthless group of soldiers led by a former army Sierra Leone corporal, Foday Sankoh. They would do anything to gain control of the country including the enlistment of child soldiers, and they had the upper hand until the army followed their strategy and drafted children themselves (Fyfe and Davidson). Many of the child soldiers suffered a lot of physical and psychological trauma from the war including a young boy named Ishmael Beah. In A Long Way Gone, Beah’s recounting of his experiences in the war, portrays the loss of innocence and hope in child soldiers due to the effects of war.

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They see nothing wrong with what they do. In 2007, Ishmael Beah published a memoir called “A Long Way Gone” about his time as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. When he was twelve, the RUF (rebels) attacked his home village of Mogbwemo while he was in Mattru Jong with his older brother and their friends. The RUF then began to attack neighboring villages, sending Ishmael and his brother running.

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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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(Conclusion) Ishmael Beah narrated his personal experience from an honest point of view. By doing so, he enabled the reader to understand everything he chose to explain head on, with no barriers. The reader was able to know what Beah went through, in his own words. “I began to cry quietly and all of a sudden felt dizzy,” (Beah 34). The readers were able to understand how he felt in certain situations.

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