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.
As mentioned before in chapter 1 his interest in the appearance of moon. For the past couple of years Ishmael has been trained how to be a soldier, he has learned many thing like learning how to survive, fight, and kill. After learning all of this he has been able to break through his self conscious with the help of Esther and Leslie. Ishmael has regained his past common knowledge of his family history. He remembers his conversation between his grandmother and him about an important lesson she gave him, about how the spiritual world and real world connect.
Ishmael has accept the fact that the war has ruined his enjoyment of meeting new people. Because of him going into villages and being chased out because they believed he was a rebel, Or having to go through other villages because he knew nobody there and he knew what was coming to their village and he did not want to stay had ruined the experience for him until later on in his life. Ishmael's experiences force him to deny his emotional side in order to survive. His flight from RUF attacks on the various villages in Sierra Leone requires him to let go of attachments to family and friends. Although he holds out hope to see his family, he has no choice but to close off himself to the world.
Later on in the book Ishmael is forced into the military; he sees and does thing a child should never experience in their entire life. The ending of the book is both
After Ishmael was released from the Army he was taken to a rehabilitation center to help with his conditions. He met a lady named Esther that helped him get through his hard conditions at the time. He had a very rough time forgiving himself after all he had done but Esther helped him with all the love and sympathy she gave to him and found a way to soon forgive himself. Soon after that he is accepted back into his family and gets love and support from each one of his family
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).
The Vision in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone In August Wilson’s play Joe Turner ’s Come and Gone there was a character named Herald Loomis. At the end of Act 1 that character had a vision. My interpretation of the vision is that it was a depiction of the freeing of slaves and their fight for normal lives.
He no longer feels as if he has control of his future. Right now he is compelled to do anything possible to survive. Like most children Ishmael is afraid to run away, he decides to join the army. When Ishmael first started off in the war as a solider he felt traumatized, disgusted, and horrified by his experiences. On page 100 Ishmael encounters several dead bodies, it was such a traumatizing experience for him; he felt like he was going to throw up.
Ishmael being born as a villager, the most important thing for him was to know his wild life and greenery, Ishmaels Grandparents were brought up a lot for how they taught him of plants and medicine. The period where Ishmael became lost in the forest and depressing thoughts clouded his mind, really goes to show how lonely times were for him and how hard it was to deal with all of the family lost and war. Ishmael's only way of staying alive and safe from the gangs that went from town to town killing, burning, raping and destroying villagers along with their homes, was running
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
Towards the beginning, Ishmael was always on the run. He was running and hiding to survive. On page 69 Ishmael says, “...I was starting over and over. I was always on the move, always going somewhere.” If Ishmael wanted to survive, he had to keep moving.
I was determined to make it to the end of the war alive" (p. 186). Ishmael’s determination to persist is driven by his fear of mortality. Despite the slim probability of survival, his fear of mortality compelled him to move forward. This forces him out of complacency and acceptance which drives him toward safety. This motivation ultimately enabled him to endure the hazardous conflicts he encounters throughout the story.
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.
Ishmael does a magnificent job in telling his story, he envelops the reader and does not let go until the very end. But some will not want to be let
Ishmael view on whales contradicts Ahab’s perspective, which can indicate how different Ishmael is compared to the rest of the characters. Ishmael’s main reason to go on a ship and set sail was to escape from the world, “But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm…there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy” (Melville 433). Ishmael can find peace and joy in the middle of the ocean, even in the midst of chaos, he enjoys being out in nature. This can be a reason why Ishmael can see the tranquility in whales
