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Ishmael Beah's Memoir: A Long Way Gone

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Memoir: A long way gone
“The idea of death didn’t cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water” (127).
At the beginning of the Memoir, A long way gone, Ishmael Beah was the average nice kid. He played with his friends, went to school, made music for fun and more. In the country Beah lived in, Sierra Leone, there was a large war going on for diamonds. The Rebels (RUF) were vicious and destroyed everything in their path to get to their goal. Unfortunately, Beah was one of the many people that suffered in the war. He ran for so long to get away and find safety, just to be caught up in it. Ishmael Beah went from an innocent child to a violent soldier. The main causes that led up to this were when Beah was constantly surrounded …show more content…

At first, he needed someone or something to blame for his family’s death, but the guilt eventually reached him. Beah and a few of his friends had finally reached the village where they would be reunited with their families. Just outside the village, Gasemu had stopped them to talk, it was all fine until they began to see smoke rising from the village. When they reached the village, it was already too late. Beah’s family had been burned in the village and we were able to see his snapping point where Beah began to show a bit of the violence he picked up. Immediately, Beah began to blame Gasemu for his family’s death. “I didn’t know what was happening to me. I got up, walked behind Gasemu, and locked his neck under my arms” (96). Not only did Beah just attack Gasemu and blame him for his family’s death, but he was also not able to think straight and just acted out. This shows that Beah is becoming more violent just from being surrounded by the aftermath of the war as during the beginning of his memoir, he was a very innocent and playful child but now he was randomly attacking and taking his anger out on someone …show more content…

After a while, Beah and even his friends were inspired by the characters from the movies and wanted to use their murder techniques and try it out on the rebels they captured. “We all wanted to be like Rambo; we couldn’t wait to implement his techniques” (121). Since Beah and some of the other soldiers were still children, they could easily be influenced or groomed in a certain way to the army’s liking. This was one-way Beah became more violent as he was manipulated and inspired by the war movie

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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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Book Report On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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Ishmael Beah being number one for he is the author and narrator of this account. He retells his journey, fighting to run from war and battle with internal struggles. After being captured, brainwashed and beaten Ishmael is finally given a break. He has the chance to recovery and is reunited with his Uncle Lennie. Lennie assists Ishmael in his recovery and helps him to remember the happy times with his loved ones.

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A Long Way Gone is Ishmael Beah’s memoir. It retracts all of the tragic events Ishmeal endured while the Sierra Leone civil war occurred. Ishmael was a child who lived an ordinary life until rebels infiltrated his village which left him and others with no choice, but to flee. He was then forced to become a child soldier. This book shows the physical and mental torture Beah had to go through while has was a child soldier.

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Ishmael's Changes In A Long Way Gone

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Beah starts looking forward to violence and wishes to take part. This is a large jump from his baseline reaction, which was puking at the this eagerness to kill causes his primary reaction is resorting to violence, which we see happening at the

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Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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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 Beah is only twelve years­old when his village in Mattru Jong is attacked in January of 1993. He happened to be on his way to another village to perform a show with his brother, Junior and a few of his other friends at the time. That’s when his entire life is turned around. He has to travel from place to place, running from rebels (Revolutionary United Front), struggling to survive, losing his brother in the process. Eventually, he is alone and meets another group of boys that he recognized from his secondary school back in Mattru Jong.

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Explain The Transformation That Happens To Beah On Pages 118-120

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This can be seen when Beah says, “Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all of the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by the war began flashing in my head.” (Beah 119) Second, Beah became angry, infuriated even, with the war, and it only made his lust for revenge even stronger. With his anger, the fear that he had in the beginning had vanished, as seen when he says,

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How Does Ishmael Beah Use Literary Devices In A Long Way Gone

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When Beah lost the tapes he and the other boys felt their childhood and innocence being taken away in just a few seconds. The tape’s presence in his life was very strong since they were given to him by his brother Junior. Ishameal used the tape's presence to escape from the reality of what was going on including the war, seeing the bodies, nightmares, headaches, and hopelessness he

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Examples Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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The fear people encounter gives the rebels with guns and weapons power. Beah explains the fear of guns when he writes, “I prayed that my friends and brother wouldn’t make any sudden moves or even try to scratch an itch. The back of my head was getting warm, as if expecting a bullet anytime” (32). Beahs’ fear for his life and of his families gives the rebel pointing the gun tremendous power over them because it makes the rebel superior at that moment. Beah writes about

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Ishmael Beah Trauma

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Beah was exposed to and committed many offenses such as killing, stealing, and many forms of trauma. After a few long years, sixteen-year-old Beah is taken out of the war by UNICEF and sent to a rehabilitation center. Eventually, Beah is helped to find

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A Long Way Gone Sparknotes

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Ismael Beah: Ruthless Killing Machine to Healed Civilian 1993, Sierra Leone is a war zone: bombs exploding, rebels attacking, and blood gushing through the streets. Amidst this chaos, Ishmael Beah’s life is hung by a thread as he runs for his life. Every decision he makes is a gamble on his fate, and a single misstep could prove catastrophic. His memoir, A Long Way Gone, vividly depicts his struggles as a child ensnared in war. At age twelve, Beah is thrust into a violent and unforgiving life, witnessing the murder of loved ones, and then falling prey to the Sierra Leone army’s mind-twisting manipulation.

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Examples Of War In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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War is a terrifying occurrence to be a part of but for most people, it is not part of their daily lives, and only know of it from history books and movies; But in Some countries, war is a part of people's daily lives. In his nonfiction memoir, Ishmael Beah develops his purpose to educate people on how war is not as cool as it seems through the use of being numb to emotion and drugs. Numbness to emotion is prominent in the novel. Ishmael has become a child soldier for the government and is now getting ready to kill a prisoner they captured. Ishmael writes, “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and [he] [grabs] the man's head and slit his throat…” “...

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Morality In A Long Way Gone

1538 Words | 7 Pages

In the chaos and violence of war, the lines between right and wrong become blurred. Beah at the beginning found violence and specifically death disgusting and repulsive but as the novel progresses he turns into a killing machine. Beah’s ability to judge something as morally bad or good was blurred or completely eliminated. What may have been considered immoral in peacetime may be seen as necessary for survival in a warzone. Beah was forced into a position where it was either kill or be killed, he wanted to survive so he killed.

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Symbols In A Long Way Gone

1118 Words | 5 Pages

After the “white tablet” Beah takes to boost his energy before battle wheres off following his return that night, he is faced with an extreme nightmare where Beah dreams, “... I was picking up Josiah from the tree stump and a gunman stood on top of me. He placed his gun on my forehead. I immediately woke up from my dream and began shooting inside the tent” (120). This intense nightmare from Beah shows how war, especially at this young of an age causes extreme difficulties as they take drugs to try to cover up these problems which does not last. Succeeding the wars end, after falling asleep reading the lyrics of a song in rehabilitation,

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Reflection On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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The way Beah explained what happened to him, he did it in a sad way. My response to the writer is that I feel sorry for him. I cannot relate to him in any way since I have never been exposed to war and even been a soldier fighting in it. He was strong through the hardest part of his life; the actual war itself, rehabilitation, and ultimately escaping Freetown, Sierra Leone to eventually fly over to New York and start a new life. Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, replays a part of Beah’s life that will always be very vivid to him.

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