Ishmael Beah's Memories

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Memories
“Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose”(Arnold). In the book a long way gone a boy named Ishmael beah tells his story. In this novel Ishmael’s village is eventually raided and he becomes on his own. Through being on his own he thinks of the past and memories of a better life. These memories that he thinks of can hinder him and help him along the way through his journey. Memories are shown in the novel when he is alone, when he is in survival mode and when he is not doing anything.
To begin when Ishmael is alone he starts thinking about past times with his friends and family when he was in a better place. This is scene in the novel when Ishmael comes upon an abandoned …show more content…

You see this in the novel when he touches on a little bit of life after the UNICEF saved him. “I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories”( Beah 19). Through this quote you are able to see just how painful and dramatizing his kid soldier experience was that he could go to sleep but he didn 't want to stay awake. Another way you see this in the novel is when Ishmael is talking to Esther and looking at the sky and the moon. “ when i was a child, my grandmother olds me that the sky speaks to those who look and listen to it….that night i wanted the sky to talk to me”(Beah 166). Through this quote you are able to see just how much memories of his life have affected his journey through it and how he thinks tom his family for guidance and help in the hard and sad times of his life.
In conclusion you see how memories both hindered and helped Ishmael on his journey of life by himself. In that some of them made him more sad and distracted him from what 's happening in his life now. And others helped him stay motivated and kept him on his journey. In a whole the novel was full of him bringing up memories and in some ways i felt it helped him stay with himself and not lose the Ishmeal beah the had a hip hop group with his friends even though slowly he was turning into a Soldier that killed without