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The Theme Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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In the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, the importance of family is a very big topic. Ishmael Beah writes so much about family because during his childhood and during his time as a child soldier in Sierra Leone, he had many different families. Each of these families that he belonged to had something special about them and offered him something different that also proved to be necessary for him at the time. During his time in Sierra Leone, Beah was part of his many families. His families were: his own family, a group of seven boys that he traveled with, his small squad in the military, Esther from the Benin Home where he was being rehabilitated, his uncle Tommy’s family, and Laura, his mother in the United States. Ishmael’s …show more content…

Ishmael felt that he should be fighting in the war because that was all that he had known after fighting for two years. This quote shows that he truly felt lost without the military. “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. The extent of my thoughts didn't go much beyond that. We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone” (Beah 126). During his first few months there, he and the other boys that were soldiers were very violent towards the staff and each other. They also suffered from drug withdrawal which did not help with their recovery. After a few months at the rehabilitation center, Esther, the nurse at the hospital, starts talking to Ishmael. At first, he does not acknowledge her, but after much persistence by Esther, he eventually warms up to her and they become good friends. She even offers to be his sister because he has no other family, and this helps with Ishmael’s recovery. He is able to talk to Esther about the war and everything that he went through as a child soldier, and is able to move past it as a result. As a result of Esther’s love and kindness, Ishmael is able to become the boy that he was before the war for the most part. After Ishmael leaves the Benin Home, he never sees Esther again, but she still played a huge role in his recovery …show more content…

The family easily accepted him and they were very loving to him. This loving nature made Ishmael feel like he had a real family again, and he was able to have a good life there. Uncle Tommy treated Ishmael like one of his own sons, and was always willing to talk to him, but he did not push to know what he had been through. Uncle Tommy and his family provided Ishmael with what he needed in order to live happily after just being rehabilitated and still somewhat angry. Ishmael stayed with Uncle Tommy and his family for a while, until the Civil War ended up in Freetown. Ishmael knew that he had to leave, because if he did not he would go back to fighting or be killed by someone that knew him. His desperation to leave is shown by this quote. “The entire nation crumbled into a state of lawlessness. I hated what was happening. I couldn’t return to my previous life. I didn’t think I could make it out alive this time” (Beah 203). Ishmael left Sierra Leone to live with Laura Simms in

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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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800 Words | 4 Pages

Within Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone we see the sierra leone civil war take over and consume a young boy’s life. During Ishmael’s life his settings change rapidly because of the war, this causes him to change with his surroundings. Throughout the book the 3 reoccurring themes has to be family, death and food.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Family: You Never Know What You Have Until it is Gone Throughout the memoir “A Long Way Gone”, Ishmael told how he lost his family in war, through this experience he realized that his family is crucial to his happiness and well being, he also learned that he could form other family bonds with different people. “I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them” (Beah 109). The definition of a family is not limited to blood relation, other loved ones can be family as well.

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704 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

In hard times family should be there for one another; but not in his case. He was all alone. When his uncle came to take him back to his house to live, Beah was unsure and did not want to believe his uncles identity. His uncle then began crying and Ishmael was assured his uncle was telling the truth. In this case if they had read the whole memoir they would understand losing family would not be cool, nor would they want to experience that

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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

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Family gives everyone the love and support needed to have more meaning in life. Every family does not have to be connected by blood. Family can be created by caring strongly for one another. Ishmael Beah had a big family that consisted of his birth parents, two brothers and his friend Talloi. During the war, Ishmael was separated from his family.

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1255 Words | 6 Pages

A Long Way Gone is a nonfiction story that follows the life of Ishmael Beah during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Growing up, Ishmael lived in the small village with his father and brother. On his way to a talent show in Mattru Jong with his brother and family friend, they came under attack by a rebel group, forcing them to run for their lives. The young group of boys go through many ordeals in which they end up splitting up and both his brother (as well as his entire family), and friend are killed. Ishmael continues in search of a village supposedly free from fighting; during his travels he meets up with a group of young boys also fleeing the war, he would soon know these boys as his comrades.

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421 Words | 2 Pages

In Ishamael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, the author’s unwavering will to live and his extraordinary resilience enabled him to endure unimaginable hardships, driven by his fear of death and steadfast optimism. Initially, Ishmael’s determination to survive was bolstered by his fear of death, enabling him to perservere which demonstrates his resilience in the midst of hardship. " I did not want to die like this, so I decided to fight harder to stay alive" (p. 120). Despite the perilous situations he faces, his persistence and determination enable him to persevere and functions as the workhorse that propels him forward. This fear not only sustains his mental resilience but also drives his resolve to seek refuge, as observed by his choice to strengthen

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498 Words | 2 Pages

His story offers a powerful example of the importance of resilience and hopes in overcoming hurdles in one's situation. Ishamel’s bravery as a child soldier also brings attention to the damaging impacts of war on children and the need for more empathy and understanding for those affected by it. This is important for the story because, in the end, Beah's resilience serves as an inspiration to everyone who has faced adversity by showing that even the most difficult obstacles can be overcome with the proper mindset and

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1572 Words | 7 Pages

In the war, Ishmael has stripped away from his childhood home and kidnapped into the dreaded civil war, where he is forced to become a child soldier. Through the traumatic experiences of the war, Ishmael slowly loses his innocence and violence is bestowed upon him. While in his first armed battle, Ishmael must take another human's life and he states “My face, my hands, my shirt, and gun were covered with blood. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, and I killed a man. Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head” (Beah 119).

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654 Words | 3 Pages

A Long Way Gone Response While reading A Long Way Gone, I noticed that family is an important subject throughout the book. In the beginning, Ishmael has a mother, father, older brother named Junior, and a younger brother. Ishmael and Junior were very close.

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1110 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

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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946 Words | 4 Pages

The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone. Beah uses the theme of family and love, along with the use of symbolism and other literary devices, to inform a larger audience of the issues that he and others had to face while trying to survive in a war zone. A Long Way Gone, an autobiographical memoir, written by Ishmael Beah, takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of their civil war.

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