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Violence In A Long Way Gone

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There are about 250,000 child soldiers today. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah we read about his personal experience as a child soldier. In this book we see the start of the civil war in Sierra Leone before he was a soldier but as the war spreads he becomes a soldier as he didn't have another option. We see him go through loss of family and friends, brainwashing, violence, drug addiction, withdrawal and PTSD. He goes through recovery and gets better through hard work and the help of others. In this essay I will be discussing violence and how it affected him, drug addiction and storytelling. I personally believe revenge is okay to seek and its human nature but there are some limits. Taking revenge in a way that harms the other person in a …show more content…

A drug addiction occurs when someone uses substances to give themselves a feeling of pleasure even if it has negative consequences for them or others.When an addiction occurs the brain changes too making it extremely difficult to quit. This is because the brain wants more of the pleasurable substance because it’s giving dopamine. Once someone is addicted to something all they want is that thing and they will do anything to get it. This is a social issue because not only does it affect the individual it affects everyone. These addictions can lead to overdoses which is a huge cause of preventable deaths. It also affects many families and can lead to homelessness and food insecurity. There is also a lot of money used to arrest these people when instead they could have been sent to something like rehab. Since someone with an addiction will do that substance as much as possible this leads to unsafe conditions for them and others like driving under the influence. Drug addiction affects society as a …show more content…

These drugs were given to manipulate and brainwash the soldiers into fighting. Once he was addicted to the drugs he would do anything to get more and this also kept him from feeling pain while fighting. During rehabilitation the child soldiers would experience very intense withdrawals from these substances. He says “I cringed and rolled around on the floor by my bed or sometimes on the verandah. No one paid attention, as everyone was busy going through their own withdrawal stages in different ways”(Beah, 140). Many of the boys go through insufferable symptoms of withdrawal and because of this they would harm themselves or others. This made recovery very difficult for him for the start of

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Compare And Contrast A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

503 Words | 3 Pages

The impact of war can have very harmful effects on people, especially children. In “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, he explains the war of Sierra Leone from his point of view. The tragedy of losing his family, becoming a boy soldier, and the effects of war is said throughout the book, making it an interesting story to read. But, while Ishmael explains what he went through, it is hidden that other people were affected by the actions he took. Although Ishmael did play a victimizer, he was also a victim at the same time.

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Examples Of Hope In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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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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Long Way Down Violence Quotes

405 Words | 2 Pages

In "Long Way Down," author Jason Reynolds explores the devastating cycle of violence that hurts many communities. Will, the protagonist, showed us a exciting journey that highlights just how difficult it can be to break free from the vicious cycle of revenge and violence. The author shows this by telling us about how the characters were always told to get revenge, how easy it is to get pulled into the cycle, and that it makes people's vision/mind cloudy making them make bad decisions. The first quote that shows this theme is "No.3 Revenge if someone you love gets killed find the person and kill them.”

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Examples Of Ptsd In A Long Way Gone

635 Words | 3 Pages

Ishmael and other soldiers weren’t normal boys and “a change of environment wouldn’t immediately make us normal boys.”(164). The withdrawal period was very tough, Ishmael “craved cocaine and marijuana so badly”(167) that he had started to fight for no reason. Ishmael and his friends “beat up people from the neighborhood”(168) and sometimes even “threw stones at them.”(168). Ever since the war, Ishmael had lost his innocence and though he was in rehab, he was getting worse before getting better. The child soldiers have been ruthless and hate the civilians, who have no idea how bad the war has been and though innocent, the boys “kicked him relentlessly and left him lying on the floor bleeding and unconscious.”(169).

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A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier By Ishmael Beah

469 Words | 2 Pages

"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah, has permanently altered my understanding of "Civil War". Due to the way Ishmael Beah talked about his own near death experiences, children who read his book can now have knowledge of war, from a child's perspective. The absurd savagery Ishmael was exposed to, taught him lessons a child like myself should never have to learn. Reading this book has brought light of the many intentional and unintentional consequences of war. Ishmael had been born in Mogwemo, a poor segregated village, like most of the regions in Sierra Leone.

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Strength In A Long Way Gone

648 Words | 3 Pages

Carson Edwards English I Ms. Thaden 10 February 2023 Family Provides Strength Twelve-year-old soldiers, blinded by cocaine, violence, and war, can only find strength through the love of family. Ishmael Beah, in his book, A Long Way Gone, is struggling through the war but keeps going toward the ultimate goal of seeing his family again, proving how the unfailing love of family will give one the strength to persevere through the hardest times. This book shows the instinctual longing for the family during times of need. Beah remembers a quote from his father during the beginning half of his war journey.

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What Are The Effects Of Child Soldiers In A Long Way Gone

764 Words | 4 Pages

While in battle children are made to take drugs to absence their emotions and pain due to the effects of war and coping with pain. Drugs are enhanced in the children's everyday routine but affected the children badly where they craved the drugs and thought of emotionlessness. I craved cocaine and marijuana so badly that I would roll a plain sheet of paper and smoke it. Drug abuse is a habit of coping but can become deadly. Drugs are often exposed during battle to decrease fear and feelings from killing individuals and feeling fear yourself.

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Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

730 Words | 3 Pages

One of the most famous male child soldiers was Ishmael Beah who fought in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah later wrote a novel titled A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier in 2007. In this novel, Beah describes his personal experiences in a nonconventional military unit and its affects it had physically and mentally. The grave detail of the novel enables the readers to fully understand the seriousness of this phenomenon. Beah experienced many life changing events in his life beginning at the age of twelve.

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A Long Way Gone Analysis

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.

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A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

1513 Words | 7 Pages

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, Beah writes about his childhood to teen years being an unwilling child soldier in Sierra Leone and living through times of great tragedy and war. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone in 1980 and he moved to the United States in 1998 where he finished high school at the United Nations International School in New York. Ishmael went to Oberlin College. He is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Watch Rights Division Advisory Committee. He has spoken in front of the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO), and many other NGO panels on how children are affected by war.

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Long Way Gone Quotes

1290 Words | 6 Pages

Baseline Essay: Influence of Beliefs in A Long Way Gone “It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it. I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child” (239). The memoir A Long Way Gone follows Ishmael in war-torn Sierra Leone.

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What Is The Loss Of Innocence In A Long Way Gone

1040 Words | 5 Pages

The soldiers were all given drugs daily to make them feel fearless and unstoppable; to make them shut their emotions off and not think about being killed, but to kill. Ishmael says he shot anything that moves because if he didn’t, then

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682 Words | 3 Pages

They may be victimized through false promises or abduction, and then forced to commit acts of violence such as murder or to fight under the influence of drugs and alcohol. These children are not willing participants in these activities, but rather are coerced or manipulated into them by armed groups or other parties. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone's civil war, supplies an example of this in his memoir "A Long Way Gone" which raises awareness about the issue of child soldiers and their impact. Beah describes how he and other child soldiers were given drugs to make them more willing to fight and kill, and how the trauma of the war and the acts he was forced to commit affected him long after the conflict ended.

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

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