Ishmael Beah's Babes In Arms
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.
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.
As Ishmael Beah becomes accustomed to the cruel life during war in Sierra Leone, Ishmael learns that ensuring trust within the companions he meets on the battlefield keeps him “human” throughout the duration of the war against the rebels, as is displayed in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. After Ishmael and his brother, Junior escape from a village Junior whispers quietly, “I do not think that this madness will last ... he looked at me as if to assure me that we would soon go home” (Beah 15).
The 6-year war in Sierra Leone captured 10,000 to 14,000 child soldiers and left them displaced after the war with no family and no childhood left. A long way gone by Ishmael Beah gives us a unique perspective of what child soldiers have to go through and what they have survived. Resourcefulness was one of the various skills that Ishmael used to survive well being part of the Sierra Leone war. Ishmael's resourcefulness helped him in many ways to survive well in war. The first piece of evidence that supports that Ishmael is resourceful is, "I learned about this grass during one of the summers when I visited my grandmother.
In “ A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael recalls moments in his life where he experienced servere pain, felt distress and depression. The book expresses many themes including: “war is terrible” and “there is always love and friendship”. Ishmael stuggled to gain back his childhood, which was now filled with war memories, in hopes of starting a new life away from the war. Ishmael thought to himself “This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy”(37).
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.
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.
War is a devastating site to witness for anyone, but imagine being child in the middle of a civil war having to decide whether to kill or be killed. A twelve year old boy named Ishmael Beah, along with many other children, faced this challenge during the Sierra Leone Civil War. He later wrote about his journey in his memoir A Long Way Gone. Ishmael’s story consists of a conflict between the government and rebels.
“When you tell a story, you give it out to the world and whoever listens becomes a part of that story.” Ishmael Beah, raised a war child and now a published author, is very aware of the impact that words can have. Beah published his memoir in 2007, and with it relays the power of stories to influence people. Thus, stories are significant in A Long Way Gone, as they are used to symbolize hope, introduce a new perspective for the reader, and reflect the memoir’s themes. Throughout Beah’s life as a refugee and war child, stories became an anchor for him.
”(Beah, 112). The corporal uses the rebels as a way to control the children 's emotions and use them for himself. He makes Ishmael’s desire start to transition towards creating destruction. Later, Ishmael and his friend’s enter into the battlefield. During this time, Ishmael kills his first victim and his desire completely turns into killing sprees.
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
The reader learn certain information based on Beah’s first person point of view. Next, he highlighted facts about his life that could not be left out of his story. He implied emotion through his diction he chose to write with. My response the book was incredible satisfaction that Beah was able to escape the horrific war and migrate to another country where he would be safe from the dangers of Sierra
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way
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.
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