Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

What choice have people made that affect their whole life? In Ishmael Beah’s book, A Long Way Gone, the war brought children become a soldier. Ishmael was one of them, he made three choice that had affected his whole life: facing his enemy, keeping his humanity, and sacrificing his valuable one. The author use literary elements like tone, symbol, and foreshadowing to contribute to the idea of adversity. Ishmael said, “One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I felt that I was starting over and over again” (Beah 69). The difficulty that Ishmael had gone through is like a task; he has to finish

After rehabilitation, Ishmael was to go out in society, but that’s when the war reach to the city; Ishmael said, “more armed men arrived, and they began firing and knocking people’s heads with the butts of their guns. The armed men began tossing tear gas. Civilians began to vomit on the sidewalks and bleed through their noses” (Beah 205). This brought Ishmael flashbacked his war memories, he knew exactly what happened, because he seen, and been through the massacres before. So when the war come to him again, he don’t want to be involved it. Ishmael said, “I had to leave, because I was afraid that if I stayed in Freetown any longer, I was going to end up being a soldier again or my former army friends would kill me if I refused. Some friends who had undergone rehabilitation with me had already rejoined the army” (Beah 209). When Ishmael had been brought out from the war, there were no drugs he could use. This is a symbol that all the childhood’s memories come back, and all the scenes he escaping from the rebels, and killing people poured into his mind. Ishmael had been through all the difficulty to not think about the horrible memory, it’s enough for him to go through this once. Even Ishmael’s friends decided to go back but he want to live like a normal person, he didn’t want be a killer, and risk his life

Ishmael friend’s grandfather told them a stories, “There was a hunter who went into the bush to kill a monkey… the monkey spoke ‘If you shoot me, your mother will die, and if you don’t, your father will die.’ What would you do if you were the hunter?” (Beah 217). A lot of children answer it in different ways, but they all try to avoid the two choice and go for third choice. Ishmael was the only one that had answer in his mind, he said, “I never discussed it with anyone, though, for fear of how my mother would feel. I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament” (Beah 218). This foreshadowing shows that Ishmael would step up to stop more boys becoming a soldier. He didn’t avoid the question, instead he will choose to sacrifice his valuable one, and to stop this routine that way the monkey won’t hurt more people. Ishmael knows it’s difficult to stop this just like it’s difficult to stop boys getting involved in the war. Ishmael’s experience and his perseverance will help the boys walk out from the war, and stop more boys from becoming a