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Symbols In A Long Way Gone

1118 Words5 Pages

How would you feel if you were forced into warfare at the young age of thirteen as a revenge to your entire family’s death? In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone, Beah tells the story of his life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Army following Sierra Leones invasion by the Revolutionary United Front, as well as his long journey of rehabilitation following the war. Ultimately, the cruelty of the war in Sierra Leone causes Beah to obtain relationships with many symbols in his life, including his cassette tapes, the moon, as well as his dreams and nightmares.

Throughout Beah’s time as a child soldier, his humanity would be represented through his cassette tapes as he has a true love for music. Before the war, Beah and a group of friends …show more content…

After being forcefully brought into the war, while Beah puts on his new army attire, a soldier throws his rap cassettes into a fire to burn his belongings and after this occurs, Beah states, “I ran toward the fire, but the cassettes had already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away” (110). This shows how much his rap cassettes mean to him as through a powerful use of imagery, tears formed in his eyes and his lip shook, as he was extremely sad and angry that the soldier does this. After Beah is removed from the war and sent to the Benin Home on the outskirts of the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, for rehabilitation, Beah meets a nurse by the name of Esther. After Esther becomes closer with Beah, she gives Beah a gift, as Beah states, “She knew what i wanted. She gave me the Bob Marley cassette and the Walkman, along with a …show more content…

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, Beah has a nightmare where he runs home for dinner with his brother Junior from the river to find that no one was around when gets home. After arriving he is in the dark when he finds a lamp and is surrounded by men that all have guns and knives where Beah exclaims, “They began to shoot, stab, and slice each other’s throats. But they would rise and then get killed again. Their blood began to fill the room… They wailed, causing me great anguish” (164). This somber nightmare from Beah shows the oppression he faces from the war as he has killed men by shooting, stabbing, and slicing their throats as well, just as the men around him do in the nightmare. In conclusion, the oppression of the

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