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Book Report On A Long Way Home By Ishmael Beah

2281 Words10 Pages

Gianna Scoleri
Mr. Aronsen
Geography 10H
9-3-14
Thematic Essay Summer Assignment War is terrible. War recounted through a child's eyes is horrific. However, A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier written by Ishmael Beah allows the reader to witness hope amidst the devastating losses of war. It serves to remind us of the resiliency of humanity and the ability to begin again. The book quickly takes the reader into the civil war torn country of Sierra Leone on the African coast. As the narrator and main character, 12 year old, Ishmael Beah is planning to attend a talent contest with his novice rap group (his older brother Junior and his two friends, Talloli and Mohamed) in the nearby town of Mattru Jong; their hometown of Mogbwemo is invaded by rebel forces. Immediately, the loss of innocence and horror is evident as the boys try to make …show more content…

However, the gruesome effects of being a soldier in a war still distort Ishmael’s reality. He feels the urge to be violent and his withdrawal from drugs compounded by awful migraine headaches hinders his rehabilitation. The kind staffs at the rehabilitation center, particularly Ester repeatedly tell Ishmael and the other boys “None of what happened was your fault. You were just a little boy, and anytime you want to tell me anything” (Quote from Ester A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Page 160). They always counter Ishmael’s awful behavior with kindness and forgiveness. Finally, we Scoleri Page 6 observe Ishmael’s deprogramming as he continues treatment. It is Ester who nurses his ability to trust again and he finally opens up to her about the horror of having a bullet removed from his leg with no anesthesia. Esters sadness angers Ishmael initially but he eventually begins to believe her that he is not to blame the atrocities he committed as child

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Ishmael Beah was born in the village of Mogbwemo in Sierra Leone in 1980. The Civil War in Sierra Leone displaced Ishmael and resulted in him becoming a child soldier for the Sierra Leonean Armed Forces. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier chronicles the physical and psychological horrors of war and Ishmael’s subsequent return to society. While visiting a neighboring village with his brother and a group of friends, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) pillaged Mogbwemo.

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The reality of war bleeds into the fiction of war films, which helps to further disconnect the soldiers from the truth of situation. Ishmael's almost cinematic nightmares feel like a product of this conditioning and only through rehabilitation is he able to confront and discuss his wartime actions. When he is being trained, Ishmael learns to channel his rage and seek vengeance for his family. Though he had spent months suppressing his emotions for the sake of survival, Lieutenant Jabati and his men encourage Ishmael and the boys to tap into the fear and anguish in order to

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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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“Example” Lillian 2 The effects of the war were apparent in the boys, both physically and emotionally traumatized by the events that changed their lives. Ishmael states that he began to feel nothing: “Nothing happened in my head. It was void” The battle that occurred that day left him

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Ishmael has a flashback of his life in the war. In his dream he encounters a body wrapped in white bed sheets, and as he unwraps it he realizes it is his own face he is looking at. He then awakens, sweating and on the ground. He says, “I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories” (Beah 19). Even being in a different country cannot take away the hell that Ishmael has been through.

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The Damages of War “Mourning the dead wasn’t part of the business of killing and trying to stay alive.” (149) The mind of a child is a scary place, full of dangerous thoughts. There is no hope, and, in their minds, no need to hope. They get used to the environment, to the killing.

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In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael experiences the war age of twelve and travels to find safer place from war. We encounter the changes in Ishmael’s identities as a boy, a soldier, and a civilian boy throughout

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In the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael becomes a child soldier at the age of 12 for the governmental team the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, in order to fight the Revolutionary United Front. Ishmael goes from being a regular kid who liked to spend time with his friends

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Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because the conflicts in Sierra Leone are still relevant in today’s society, and the figurative language and symbolism reveal the human resilience to survive. These are important ideas to an English IV student because learning from the past can assure we will not repeat these mistakes in the future, and learning about someone who went through very difficult circumstances and still prevailed helps prepare us for the harsh real world. Most importantly, the conflicts in Sierra Leone are still universal problems in today’s society. One night while Beah lays in bed and reflects on the days meeting with Esther, he begins to have flash backs of the first time he slit

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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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