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Examples Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael

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Ishmael titled the book A Long Way Gone because he was always a “long way” or far away from home. He was always walking and traveling because of the war, and he always had to go from village to village, farther and farther from his actual home to survive. He didn't have a choice but to keep going even if he didn't want to. For example on Pg.8 he walked for two days without stopping “I walked for two days without stopping.” Another example on Pg.60 when he had to walk barefoot because he didn't have any other choice but to keep walking. “Walking barefoot on the sand was like walking on a hot tar road. The only escape from this pain was to keep walking.” , “After I had cried for several hours, my feet became numb. I continued walking …show more content…

Closer to the end of the book was when he was really the farthest from home, he had a new home living with his uncle and you would've thought that, that would have been his permanent home, from where he didn’t have to run anymore. However, he still ended up having to run from there too because of the war. He never stopped running from any of the homes he had; he even ended up traveling to New York running from his uncle's house, the farthest away from any home he's ever had. Fortunately the home he had in New York was finally a home he could stay in without having to run. He could finally settle down. The title doesn’t go with the book just physically but mentally too because throughout the book his innocence went away more and more, because of what he saw and went through in the war. The more days that passed the less innocent he was, he saw dead bodies, people getting killed, and at some point he was the one killing. For example in chapter 8 he says “Our innocence had been replaced by fear and we had become monsters. There was nothing we could do about it.” In chapter 13 we see that Ishmael had almost totally lost his innocence when he says “I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.” , "We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for

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355 Words | 2 Pages

The book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a memoir about himself involved in war as a child. War began happening in Ishmael’s hometown in Sierra Leone, which was Mogbwemo, so everyone broke apart and he lost his family, except for his brother. He had to start running away from the war to stay alive, so he went with some of his friends and his brother into different provinces of Sierra Leone. They went from village to village looking for food, shelter and safety. Ishmael was caught many times by the army and he thought he was stuck with them forever, but he escaped many different ways.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

The impact of war can have very harmful effects on people, especially children. In “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, he explains the war of Sierra Leone from his point of view. The tragedy of losing his family, becoming a boy soldier, and the effects of war is said throughout the book, making it an interesting story to read. But, while Ishmael explains what he went through, it is hidden that other people were affected by the actions he took. Although Ishmael did play a victimizer, he was also a victim at the same time.

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486 Words | 2 Pages

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is the painfully true biography of Ishmael, his elder brother Junior, their friends and their journey to out run a war that is occurring in their hometown, Sierra Leone. The majority of the story takes place in Sierra Leon in between the years of 1993 and 1998. Ishmael’s journey begins the January of 1993 when he is the age of twelve. Individuals have begun to revolt which takes everything a turn for the worse. The rebels have struck the country with fear and caused complete chaos by killing families and destroying what they once called home.

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564 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

His group ends up running into the rebels once more, in this settlement we see them lining people up, not particularly violent yet, but Ishmael already reports “struggling to avoid fainting.” We see this stemming off his baseline reaction, but we see this change since the recruitment of children was very common at that point especially for teenage boys. This is a posing threat for Ishmael and his crew, which is why they must keep moving. This pressure caused Ishmael to have violent, self harm thoughts such as when he “looked at the blades of the machetes and thought about how much it would hurt to be chopped into one.” This is when violence is first seen as non horrific and as a passing thought.

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1585 Words | 7 Pages

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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447 Words | 2 Pages

Yafet Mebrahtu P.4 The author of A Long Way Gone is Ishmael Beah. This book is about his life in Sierra Leone during the civil war. He tells how he suffered from hunger and fear,eventually this lead him to becoming a killer and joining a group of people that kill anyone on sight called the rebels. The rebels are killers that burn villages,kill anyone in sight and recruit child soldiers.

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464 Words | 2 Pages

In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael's idea of home is crucial because he connects family to home and belonging. It continues to be relevant because Ishmael, although he does not have an actual place to call home, his home is his stability and his common ground which he stays sane throughout the book. Beah illuminates the idea of home to the idea of hope, and combines them forming an concept that home is hope to Ishmael throughout the book. Home is significant to Ishmael seeing that it

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299 Words | 2 Pages

Since the invention of guns, they have brought chaos, war, and fear to the world. Guns give people power, and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, gives great examples of this. In the reading, children and villages are afraid of ongoing war and fear armed rebels terrorizing villages.

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

Gianna Caruso Mrs. Wegwerth Honors Language Arts, Period 6 3-23-23 Losses in A Long Way Gone Boy soldiers' ages are getting younger and younger, some ranging from 6 years old. (WVI.org) This statistic is shocking, much like the things that happened in the book A Long Way Gone.

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681 Words | 3 Pages

A Long Way Gone speaks of a child soldier who follows the idea of the word resume. Ishmael Beah's life went through a pause when he found himself surrounded by war. His book speaks of this pause in his life and how he resumed it. As a child in Sierra Leone, Beah had to face much more hardship than most anyone, but life can make anyone lose their way and put who they are on pause. However, Life may have a pause button, but it doesn’t rewind.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

Through transitions from dark, disconnecting thoughts to hopeful, ambitious thoughts, characters from A Long Way Gone, The Joy Luck Club, and The Alchemist, all show perseverance through trying times by looking deeper within themselves and into their inner power, which reveals how much strength each survivor hides underneath. Amid journeys and hardships, Ishmael and An-Mei find themselves lost or disconnected from their families, which can be heavy and unmanageable to them. After Ishmael loses his family, he instantly goes into a dark place. Ishmael’s anger is underlying pain, and he took it out on Gasemu before he even had time to think: “If we hadn’t stopped to rest on the hill, if we hadn’t run into Gasemu, I would have seen my family,

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641 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion Ishmael was going insane because he was alone he had no one to talk to and he couldn’t sleep at all. The second most important scene in “a long way gone” is when ishmael was capture by the army and ishmael becomes this kid that has no feelings he was just like a killing machine. This is an important moment in the memoir because now ishmael knows the other side of the story that most of the soldiers were taking drugs that’s why they were like killing machines. One quote from the book that exemplifies this aspect of the book is “in the daytime instead of playing soccer in the village square, i took turns at the guarding post around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown cocaine mixed with gunponder.(121) This quote is important because it shows the reader what they were giving them to stay awake and don’t feel anything, it also shows what ishmael had

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691 Words | 3 Pages

“A Long Way Gone” Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, wrote this book based on his real life experiences of being in Sierra Leone, where he is forced to fight in the civil war as a young boy. Ishmael was twelve years old when this war began to affect him, his home village was ransacked and blood covered while he was not there, but when he returned, he saw it all. He, his brother, and his friends then had to look for food, water, and shelter, in other places besides their home village. They continue doing this and going to lots of different villages and in times of desperateness, would do unsettling things to stay alive. “In the back of the van there were three more dead bodies, two girls and a boy, and their blood was all over the

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498 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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