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Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

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Introduction. What is Child Soldiering? Child Soldiering is the action of taking children away from their families to fight a war with children as young as 8 years old. Ishmael Beah was one of these children. Ishmael had an amazing journey from brutal guerrilla warfare all the back to being a functioning human in society. His journey has been long, dangerous and terrifying. He was forced to kill innocents as a child soldier by the RUF. But, thankfully for him UNICEF came in and rescued him and many other children and taught the how to function in society again.
Transition to child soldier: PHYSICAL. Ishmael Beah was forced to go without sleep, forced drugs, made to walk without shoes when he had deep cuts in his feet. After being taken by the RUF he was forced to grow quickly, forced to kill other people and forcefully brainwashed “We watched war movies while the forced us drugs”(Beah, 60). He was shot, beaten and starved “After I had cried for several hours, my feet became numb. I continued to walk but couldn’t feel the soles of my feet”(Beah, 60), but yet …show more content…

Ishmael felt very lonely while being rehabilitated. His mind would play games with him and give him horrible nightmares of the war “I was beginning to shake. The drugs were wearing off from the previous night”(Beah, 137). He eventually accepted treatment, he smiled for the first time and even got a crush on a nurse named Ester. Many boys would cry to the therapists when they were asked to talk about their experiences. He learned to be happy with his new family who he moved in with and even went out dancing with his cousin, Allie “This is a secret. I want to take you to a dance tonight so you can enjoy yourself”(Beah, 183). Ester showed Ishmael love and happiness, made him smile and care. She showed him what he was missing as a child and Ishmael gave in and regained his compassion and used his past to make him a stronger man than he was before and fuel the act against the

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Later on, the boys parted ways when the rebels shot at them. Therefore, Ishmael was all alone. He felt nothing, but pain, even though he was with other boys he did not know. Unfortunately, Ishmael became a child soldier when he was thirteen years old. He fought off rebels in an army.

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Ishmael became a victim of the war the moment he became a boy soldier. He was only a young teen at the time, where substances took over his life, as he states, “In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square,

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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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Ishmael suffered loss of a place to call home multiple times which caused him to lose his hope for a better tomorrow ,"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) Beah's memoir sheds light on the multifaceted damage done by civil war and terrorism which directly affected the loss of home.

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He undergoes many difficult situations that he either has to live with, or die. He changed from a young, innocent boy to a careless soldier, to a rehabilitated adult due to his war ravaged country. During the war, Ishmael was separated from his family. He had hope throughout the story that one day he would be reunited with his family, this sliver of hope pushed him to keep walking and not give up. Ishmael later witnessed the attack of the village his family was supposedly in and finally found out his family was dead (Beah, 117).

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In the novel, “A Long Way Gone,” Ishmael Beah suffers from PTSD due to the exposure to war at such a young age and the rehabilitation process. Ishmael was exposed to guns, drugs and other types of violent acts due to the war at the age of 12. As time went by, Ishmael lost his family and slowly his friends too. Ishmael was traumatized from all the violence he experienced due to the war approaching his village. He had been forced by the Sierra Leone Armed Forces to serve as a child soldier during a civil war and “It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it.

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During the Sierra Leone war, Ishmael was separated from his family and friends. While he was alone, he fought to stay alive so he would one day be able to see his family and friends again. These challenges drove him to be stronger.

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Kali Griffin Ms D’Ambrosia English 9H II 15 March 2024 Ishmael’s Recovery Hope is possible in any situation because hope is not a fact, rather it is a positive outlook to encourage you to keep moving forward. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is an inspiring yet eye-opening memoir about Ishamael’s experience as a child refugee. Although Ishmael has been through things that no normal child has been through, there is still hope for him to live an ordinary, happy life. Despite the fact that war comes with horror and tragedy, with the right help, Ishmael can recover and move past it. After Ishmael gets settled in with his new family, he is offered to do a speech at an event about child refugees.

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In the book “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael has to overcome his fears and desperation especially when he ends up in villages that dislike little kids because of the assumption that they are rebel soldiers. Sometimes he comes face to face with death like the time when some of the villagers who were suffering the civil war, capture Ishmael and his new accompanied friends they were saying ”We told him we were students and this was a big misunderstanding. The crowds shouted, drown the rebels”(Beah 38). When the village guards found a rap cassette in Ishmael's pocket they played the music and it pleased the chief and so they were excused from execution and as a result they were offered to also stay in the village for how long they wanted. This part in the story paves a path from Ishmael to talk and although that was one of his major obstacles pertaining to his life he succeeded and faced adversity by pleading that they were not rebels but

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If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” (54). The words of Ishmael 's father help galvanize Beah to continue on his journey although it is harsh and unbearable. Beah is struggling with depression and isolation, but the words of his father give him a sense of hope and light at the end of the tunnel that he will survive. The war was harsh, and the cruel and unjust treatment of the soldiers causes Ishmael Beah to live his childhood in fear and discomfort. He exclaims that “we were always either at the front lines, watching a war movie, or doing drugs.

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This young boy was manipulated by the two rebels to either serve or death would come upon them. These child soldiers served while encountering major effects on fellow soldiers as well as Ishmael had. In A Long Way Gone Ishmael encountered PTSD, and other tragic events. History has proven that the

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Eight months after rehabilitation Ishmael had the opportunity to fly to New York to talk about his experience saying, “I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child. We are all brothers and sisters. What I have learned from my experience is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” (Beah 2007 pg 199).

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His story offers a powerful example of the importance of resilience and hopes in overcoming hurdles in one's situation. Ishamel’s bravery as a child soldier also brings attention to the damaging impacts of war on children and the need for more empathy and understanding for those affected by it. This is important for the story because, in the end, Beah's resilience serves as an inspiration to everyone who has faced adversity by showing that even the most difficult obstacles can be overcome with the proper mindset and

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

Later, UNICEF came and decided to take Ishmael out of the war and put him in a rehabilitation center. In this part of the novel, the reader can see how his desire for killing has controlled him completely. By fighting and killing rebel members in the rehabilitation center and beating up the guards to force them into doing what the children wants to do, the reader can see that the war has changed their ways of life and thoughts. The army was able to change Ishmael 's desires and from that, he became a deadly

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To say that prostitution is a social problem. Prostitution can be degrading to women, such as the prostitutes being beaten up, raped or even robbed. There are two different sides to prostitution, there are people who think prostitution is okay and there are people who believe that prostitution is not such a good idea. Prostitution is illegal in all jurisdictions in the United States with the exception of a few counties in Nevada where the commercial sex trade is legal (Sex Crimes, 2015). There is federal, state, and local laws that regulate prostitution activities based on the confined rules of jurisdiction (Sex Crimes, 2015).

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