ipl-logo

Figurative Language In A Long Way Gone

841 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

Here, as Beah is coming off withdraws from his drug addiction, and is receiving help from Esther, memories of the violent war begins creeping back into his mind. He begins to realize how awful the things he had done to survive were and he cannot sleep without having nightmares of them. This internal conflict is still very much relevant today. Especially those who deal with post traumatic stress, mostly from being in a war of some sort or a troubled childhood. Furthermore, as Beah is sharing his war stories with Esther, she explains to him the acts he committed were not his fault, and Beah thinks, “Even though I had heard that phrase from every staff member – and frankly I had always hated it – I began that day to believe it. It was the genuine tone in Esther’s voice that made the phrase begin to sink into my mind and heart” (165). Obviously, the time Beah is spending with Esther is helping him a lot, and is allowing him to open up more about his past. A

Show More
Related
1585 Words | 7 Pages

The influence of war on his inner turmoil is exhibited when he encounters the wounded family in the van. This was his first real exposure to the casualties of war. He personifies the ground he stood on. He writes that he felt the ground moving beneath his feet (13). Beah feels as if he no longer stands on solid ground because the world he firmly knew has shifted, leaving him dazed and confused.

Read More
632 Words | 3 Pages

A Long Way Gone is an autobiography written by Ishmael Beah, the book details his childhood throughout the Sierra Leon civil war. The book shows how you can turn an innocent child into a killing machine. We see both sides of the warring party do this with them drugging the children, turning them against the enemy with propaganda and threatening them with death. These are the factors that made a quarter of all the soldiers within this war under the age of eighteen.

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael Beah has experienced extreme hardships ever since he was a little boy. Growing up in Sierra Leone during war causes Ishmael’s life to revolve around such. In the nonfiction book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldiers, Ishmael Beah shares personal accounts of what it was like growing up in a period of violence and separation. Ishmael and his family live in a small village called Mattru Jong. When Ishmael is twelve-years-old, his village is attacked by rebels.

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

A Long Way Gone is a memoir written with Ishmael Beah’s memories of the civil war that happened in his hometown, Sierra Leone. Beah’s determination for survival and use of descriptive imagery of the war gives us a chance to feel like we’re actually in the war with him. Ishmael Beah was only a twelve year old boy when the war came to his village. Because he lost his family in the war, Ishmael had to learn how to survive on his own along with some other boys. Together, they took care and watched out for each other in the wilderness while trying to find a safe place to hide from the rebels, the people attacking their country.

Read More
69 Words | 1 Pages

John The poor, young, marine, Missing his wife and kids, Drafted. Keeping his family and friends close to heart, Feeling purpose, pressure, He’s unnerved.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High school English IV curriculum because of Beah’s knowledge that reveals real life events that have occurred in Sierra Leone. Also, the memoir makes the reader grateful for the life he or she has today. For instance, Beah illiterates that the rebels have no sympathy for innocent lives and did not care if they lived or died. Specifically, when the rebels captured Beah and his friends and threatened to kill innocent people in front of them; “We are going to initiate all of you by killing these people in front of you”(34).

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

There are many reasons English teachers should select material to teach important concepts. English is a much more loosely structured class than Calculus or Physics, so there is a great deal of controversy when choosing books for students. While some titles can hold topics that resemble taboos, the experiences of the protagonists in stories of violence, poverty, and extreme struggle can encourage growth of students as learners, thinkers, and human beings. Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because it contains honest and detailed imagery, and because it sparks a reader’s awareness of tragedies that are being forced upon their peers across the globe.

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

ECR: A Long Way Gone In “A Long Way Gone”, Ishmael Beah's journey as a child soldier in Sierra Leone highlights the resilience required to survive in the face of traumatic events. Ishmael Beah's resilience in the face of trauma and adversity shows the importance of hope and determination in overcoming life's challenges. After a devastating attack in his village, Ishmael escapes and struggles for independence. "I ran for my life, my heart pounding, my mind racing.

Read More
1110 Words | 5 Pages

Not experiencing war is a luxury many people unfortunately do not get; however, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, lives and survives the war, though not without heartache. With war there is always fear, death, and hell. Ishmael Beah proves war is hell through the killing of civilians, the distrust, and the after effects of the war. Ishmael proves war is hell through the killing of civilians. Many innocent bystanders of the war are forced out of their homes, made to run for their lives.

Read More
1572 Words | 7 Pages

At the age of 13 till the age of 16 the author, Ishmael Beah, pulls himself through many terrible conflicts in Sierra Leone. The author uses conflict to show his readers the realism of his story. By using conflict in many different ways, it allows readers to gain an understanding of how Ishmael struggles changed his life for worse and for better. By using person vs person, person vs society, person vs self, and person vs nature conflict the author is opening doors allowing readers to get a full understanding of Ishmael 's challenges of a life in war. The most commonly seen conflict in ‘A Long Way Gone’ is person vs society.

Read More
1513 Words | 7 Pages

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, Beah writes about his childhood to teen years being an unwilling child soldier in Sierra Leone and living through times of great tragedy and war. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone in 1980 and he moved to the United States in 1998 where he finished high school at the United Nations International School in New York. Ishmael went to Oberlin College. He is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Watch Rights Division Advisory Committee. He has spoken in front of the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO), and many other NGO panels on how children are affected by war.

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

A Long Way Gone is nonfiction story and true story of a boy named Ishmael Beah who is also the author himself. It is about how he becomes a boy soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone. When he was 12 years old, his village was attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends; which at the time he and his friends thought was cool because it came from America. With the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander to all different villages to find food and shelter. They soon begin to struggle to survive, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never thought of doing, such as stealing food from children.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

The human condition is full of paradoxes and double meanings. We can commit the most shocking and terrible acts, but we can complete the most virtuous and honorable feats. Ishmael Beah describes the appalling and violent behavior he and other children exhibited toward the human life during his time in the Sierra Leonean civil war in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. Beah also details the forgiveness and kindness of complete strangers that helped him become the man that fate meant him to be. Homo sapiens are complex creatures brimming with irony and surprises.

Read More
396 Words | 2 Pages

In the book reveiw for Ishmael Beah’s memoir, “Babes in Arms” the author, William Boyd, outlines the difficulties Ishmael Beah had to go through as a child soldier. As a result of the war in Sierra Leone, the wartime experience Beah had to withstand as a child impacted his life. First of all, there were many obstacles Beah had to face as a child soldier, but one in specific was the separation of his family. This can best be explained in the following quote, “A 12- year- old is conscious only of immediate circumstances, and in Beah's case the arrival of the rebels in his small town meant sudden separation from his parents…”(Boyd.

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone. Beah uses the theme of family and love, along with the use of symbolism and other literary devices, to inform a larger audience of the issues that he and others had to face while trying to survive in a war zone. A Long Way Gone, an autobiographical memoir, written by Ishmael Beah, takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of their civil war.

Read More

More about Figurative Language In A Long Way Gone

Related Topics

Open Document