ipl-logo

Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

986 Words4 Pages

Could you imagine being a child soldier when you were 13 years old? Growing up with guns, blood, and constant murder? Ishmael Beah was a victim of those things; his childhood taken away from him and having grown up in what we would call total chaos. He grew up from ages 13 to 16 fighting for what he believed to be the good guys of the civil war. Beah was taught to kill the enemies by shooting, burying them alive, and cutting their throats. Before this low point in life there was one thing that influenced his life more than anything else; music. The impact it had on him showed on what he wore, the way he acted, and the things he did, such as signing up for contests he could perform in. Rap was the major genre that Ishmael took an interest …show more content…

"
The people at the rehab center wanted the kids to believe that what they had been through was over and that they could move on to living a better, happier life. They wanted the kids the forget about the past and start to focus on the life that they hoped to live before the war. The workers at the center would constantly tell the children, “It’s not your fault.” hoping they would believe in what they were saying. At first, when they said that to Ishmael and other boys they would get frustrated with them and attack. However, later on after months and months they soon started to accept

Little 3 what they were saying. There were many other artists that Ishmael admired and strived to be as such as the Sugarhill Gang. “Rapper’s Paradise,” by the Sugarhill Gang was the song that first brought him into his love for hip hop. It was before the war when Ishmael was 8, he and his friends were sitting around tv watching the music video for “Rapper’s Delight.” Since the video the group of boys ganged together and created a rap and dance group for themselves. Committed to their group, they worked constantly on their songs and dance moves, even changed their

Show More
Related
503 Words | 3 Pages

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,

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

And went all over the world to tell people how bad the world is then what other people think. and this place has bad shelter and the people sufer bad and i think it said that is were he is from that is how the lived so he is telling people that its a bad world out there. Ishmael has a mother and her name is laura simms and his brother name is junior Beah and his spouse is priscillia kounkou. he started writing books ever seince he was 12 years old.

Read More
625 Words | 3 Pages

He idea (false hope), to from harm (Page 13)”. attempts to understand the push through the reasoning behind why one war? If so… how? pretends all is well, even though the opposite is true. Ishmael had not yet been introduced to the tragedies that would come with war.

Read More
318 Words | 2 Pages

In Ishmael Beah’s personal memoir, A Long Way Gone, music courses through the story quite often. Music is first seen in Ishmael’s peaceful childhood. He and his friends enjoy singing and dancing along to music, in particular, Rap Music. As the story progresses, and the war becomes more prevalent in the young boys lives, rap continues to play a substantial role in their lives, just in a different way. At the end of Ishmael’s life story, there is yet another role that music plays.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

Furthermore, Beah has struggled with losing his family and is brain washed that he starts to lose his humanity. To clarify, when the rebels were planning an attack on a village Beah releases his anger on the rebels by shooting as many rebels from the other village as he can. “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn't feel any better”(122). In this moment, the pain that Beah has from losing his family turns into hatred for the rebels that killed his loved ones and Beah believes that killing more

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout chapter 1 we learn in-depth information about Ishmael’s passion for music. On page 6 it describes Ishmael and his friends’ first time encountering rap music, at one of their visits to Mobimbi an “American company” were his fathered lived. Ishmael and his friends were in the pool watching TV when all of a sudden there were “a bunch of young black fellows talking really fast… The four of us sat there mesmerized by the song, trying to understand what the black fellows” were saying. Thus began their passion for music.

Read More
657 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

He went from,” During holidays, he bought me cassettes and taught my friends and me how to dance to what we came to know as hip-hop. I loved the dance, and particularly enjoyed learning the lyrics, because they were poetic and it improved my vocabulary.” (Beah, 13) to “We were so hungry that it hurt to drink water and we felt cramps in our guts. It was as though something were eating the ‘s things insides of our stomachs.” (Beah, 53) in a short couple of months.

Read More
1023 Words | 5 Pages

The evolution of the musical genre hip hop has been gradual, especially in a country such as the United States where being different is looked down upon. Past rappers have set trends that have influenced current rappers that have cultivated hip hop as we know today. Kid N’ Play are a rap group that, like previously stated, has influenced current hip hop artists. Kid N’ Play’s high energy, mixed with their innovative dancing style, musical skills, and colorful 90’s fashion left a mark on hip hop that is still felt until this very day.

Read More
507 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael's great ability to notice his surroundings and use what he has around him is a huge reason he was able to survive. If he wasn’t perceptive during the times he spent alone, he would not have survived. Also, Ishmael used the branches from the trees to keep him safe. One way it kept him safe was by keeping him from predators, and he was able to eat the fruit from the tree. The last quote that shows Ishmael is resourceful is, ¨We loaded the supplies in plastic bags, and the six of us went to the nearest market, where we sold them to a vendor¨ (Beah 145).

Read More
1110 Words | 5 Pages

Ishmael says, “I wasn’t sure whether he was unconscious or dead. I didn’t care” (Beah 135). Ishmael is no longer in the war, yet the violence and numbness to it continues. The hell from war made its way into a normal life for Ishmael. He will never be the same Ishmael from before the war.

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

As the story progresses, the reader sees that desires become a more important role in Ishmael’s life and it made him from being an innocent child into a bloodthirsty soldier only looking for something to slaughter. From these transitioning desires Ishmael becomes less and less stable, making him easily

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

When the children were not in the field fighting they were forced to watch movies about war. They were surrounded by the violence all day every day. They were brainwashed to believe that they had to fight to survive. “My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed” (Beah, 116). Prior to the war and violence Ishmael lived a normal life but once he was surrounded by the war he was forced to have a survival mentality the he believed justified the killings.

Read More
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.

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

(1991-2002) Ishmael’s story solely focused on the years he was affected by the war. (1992-1997) The tale begins when with Beah, his brother, and a couple of his friends, heading to another village to put on a performance and while away, they catch wind that their village had been attacked by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). The boys' having no home to go back to, wander from village to village looking for shelter and safety.

Read More

More about Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document