ipl-logo

Ishmael's Loss In 'A Long Way Gone'

1077 Words5 Pages

Gianna Caruso Mrs. Wegwerth Honors Language Arts, Period 6 3-23-23 Losses in A Long Way Gone Boy soldiers' ages are getting younger and younger, some ranging from 6 years old. (WVI.org) This statistic is shocking, much like the things that happened in the book A Long Way Gone. In the text, Ishmael is faced with having to fight in the war starting at only 12 years old. Along the way, he finds other boys the same age as him or even younger. Ishmael faces the struggle of losing his family and his sense of safety in the war. Ishmael lost many things whilst being in a war, one of which being his family. One example of Ishmael losing his family is when he had been working on a farm in Kamator. Some rebels unexpectedly attacked and Ishmael and …show more content…

I was sitting on the ground with my legs spread in the dirt. I was filled up with anger. I hissed and boiled, and my heart felt like it was going to explode” (Beah 95). In this example, Ishmael’s loss is demonstrated by the loss of the opportunity to see them. He was so close to finally seeing them again that when he lost that opportunity, it was like losing them all over again. This impacted him emotionally. Losing his family again made him angry and sad at the same time. He is filled with frustration and anger, and he later took his frustration out on Gasemu with violence. Ishmael lost many things during the war, the most impactful on his path was his family being lost. Ishmael also loses his sense of safety while at war. One example of how Ishmael loses his sense of safety during war was when Ishamel decided to leave a village he had been staying at with his only friend. As Ishmael began walking away from his only friend, he was completely alone. He felt more unsafe than ever. He was constantly in fear, and checking behind him on his long journey to find a new village. This quote demonstrates how his mind raced and tormented him

Show More
Related
617 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael went to many different places in his story and at many of those places horrible things happened. At most places the RUF attacked and Ishmael had to leave that place. Other places where already attacked or were going to be attacked soon but at every place Ishmael went he survived and got out. Ishmael was very lucky to live through all of the places he went because not everyone survived but he did.

Read More
542 Words | 3 Pages

A Long Way Gone Trailer PLANNING Name: Raven, Ryan, Frankie, Nicholas. May, 2018. Book Title: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier Genre: Historical nonfiction memoir Book Pages: 218 Summary: This book is about Ishmael’s life in Sierra Leone, and how he is running from the war, and how he eventually becomes a soldier and is forced to fight. After, Ishmael recovers from his experiences and has to escape another war.

Read More
407 Words | 2 Pages

Ishmael struggles constantly encounters gore and blood as his journey progress. From one town to another he sees government soldier to rebel soldier using the same method to kill. Ishmael has an internal battle to keep moving forward as he sees family being ripped away from

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

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

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
1086 Words | 5 Pages

He starts to think smarter and travel more cautiously. In addition to this, Ishmael also shows he had acquired intelligence when the secret market was under attack, “I was getting furious, but… I knew I couldn’t afford to lose my temper. The result would be death, since I was now a civilian; I knew that” (205). Prior to living in the rehab center, if Ishmael had been put in the same situation, he most certainly would have snapped and joined the massacre, but while staying with his civilized families, he learned to think about the outcome of his actions beforehand, so he holds his temper and hides

Read More
1498 Words | 6 Pages

Murderer. When you think about this word, the first thing that pops into your mind wouldn’t be a child, but for many around the world, this is the case. Over 300,000 children fight in wars around the world, slaughtering person after person without mercy. Ishmael Beah’s a long way gone is about the author’s first-hand experience of the 10 – year civil war in Sierra Leone, in which he was turned into one of these brutal, savage killers and then later rehabilitated. In the beginning of the book, young Ishmael, who is about 12 years old at the time, travels to a city called Mattru Jong with his brother, Junior, to participate in a talent show, where they learn that their village was attacked by a rebel group.

Read More
1110 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1508 Words | 7 Pages

I felt as if the ground had turned upside down and I was going to fall off, so I clutched the base of a tree with one hand. I couldn’t think, but I could hear the sounds of the guns far away in the distance and the cries of people dying in pain. I had begun to fall into some sort of nightmare” (117, 118). This serves as a perfect example of Ishmael proving he can still be human because he isn’t numb to war, he has emotion even though he has described himself as a killing machine we can still see he has emotion. To add onto that, we see Ishmael is affected by the sounds of people dying, and before it was hinted that he was unaffected or didn't care, but here is proof that he does.

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

Later, UNICEF came and decided to take Ishmael out of the war and put him in a rehabilitation center. In this part of the novel, the reader can see how his desire for killing has controlled him completely. By fighting and killing rebel members in the rehabilitation center and beating up the guards to force them into doing what the children wants to do, the reader can see that the war has changed their ways of life and thoughts. The army was able to change Ishmael 's desires and from that, he became a deadly

Read More
1040 Words | 5 Pages

Even though Ishmael had not been to the war yet, he had experienced so much trauma already. They caused him to picture terrifying situations. Even when he could settle down enough to get some sleep, terrorizing nightmares filled his mind with panic. When these things started happening to Ishmael, he tried to shut them off with drugs but it didn’t help. Instead, it would not only cause migraines but also cause him to shut down completely which demonstrates his loss of humanity.

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

Ishmael is faced with Adversity from the moment the war reaches the village his family is in and once they get separated from each other. What causes some to succeed while other fail. Ishmael did not fail because he never gave up on finding the remains of his family, if Ishmael could go on for days without sleep and to eat he would still search for his family. That is why Ishmael succeeds. Even when Ishmael gets captured by the rebels he manages to still stay composed even when Adversity is looking him dead in the face to keep fighting just to get to his family.

Read More
1477 Words | 6 Pages

Ishmael’s family and friends choose to ignore war because it is painless for people to ignore their problems than come to terms with the reality of a completely altered future and the risk of lives. Denial from humans occurs periodically, whether consequences arise or not. This characteristic of humanity is existent because people do not want to focus on what rough experiences are to come. Need more analysis. After war eventually struck Ishmael and his village, he and his friends had to learn to survive.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

he novel A Long Way Gone by african writer Ishmael beah tells the true story of the author's experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone during the civil war of the 1990. The author and his friends had to flee their home village from the rebels. Reading this novel can help you understand how bad war can get and how it can affect lives. Ishmael and his friends are forced to witness and participate in unspeakable violence, and as a result, they are forced to mature and grow up at a very young age. Ishmael, and his friends struggle greatly to rejoin society after experiencing the trauma of the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

More about Ishmael's Loss In 'A Long Way Gone'

Related Topics

Open Document