Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how
The war has destroyed many villages and Sierra Leone isn’t the same anymore. People don’t trust each other anymore, and steal from one another. Ishmael and his friends are soon brainwashed by the older and experienced soldiers.
A Long Way Gone is a book that lives up to its potential, putting reader themselves into the book with its glorious details while teaching people everywhere to never lose hope.
Ishmael Beah and Grace Akallo Like hundreds if not thousands of other child soldiers, Ishmael Beah suffered the devastation of war and conflict in an African country. This country in particular is Sierra Leone, a former British colony that was left with no concrete government. The history of Sierra Leone and how the 10 year war in the country started is rarely mentioned in A Long Way Gone. Whether the historical and political aspect of the war is purposely omitted from the memoir or never explored by Ishmael Beah is never mentioned in the story.
The rebels of RUF effectively used violence to instill fear and obedience into the villagers of Sierra Leone. People of the village even turn on Ishmael and his friends throughout the book. Many of the villagers don't trust them and are afraid because they stayed together in a group walking through villages. Also, the violence intentionally created distrust amongst families. Boys turned their backs on their own fathers for the RUF.
Vanessa Nguyen AP Language and Composition March 11, 2024. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Solider Boy; Storytelling Analysis Storytelling is vital and transgressive, it is how the world communicates and carries itself, without storytelling events and lessons cannot be learned or shared. The majority of civilians can say they have been told a story or have told a story to learn or gather perspective because story-telling is an intuitive and intellectual way of entertaining knowledge, that transcends languages and borders. In A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah depicts his life, fighting rebels in Sierra Leone.
We all have a story, we all go through tough things in life. We can relate to a lot of things and we find out that were not so different from other people. The memoir A Long Way Gone and the film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete have a lot of similarities and differences. Even though they live in two different places, they are very similar. One similarity would be that they are both struggling alone. They both have their parents but the boys are going to learn how to survive alone without them. They are two young black boys ages 12 and 13 that live in poverty. They become independent throughout their stories. Another thing that both Ishmael and Mister can relate to is drugs. When Ishmael was brought into the army, he started adapting to the other
In both the memoir A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, and in the book Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a war's ability to convert innocent children to vicious savages is evident. In Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are taken away from their family and are stranded on a deserted island. They discover themselves in a position full of a thirst for power. The boys think that there is a beast on the island, however, it is just a figment of their imagination. The beast eventually leads the boys to their inevitable downfall. In A Long Way Gone, Beah and his companions are torn away from their families and must survive on their own. To add to the difficulty of the situation, the boys are in the middle of a wartorn country, Sierra Leone.
In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah encourages the opinion that everyone is responsible for his/her own actions in all cases. Beah proves this opinion to be true through death, thievery, and violence.
Violence is almost everywhere around the world. It is somewhat unavoidable in life. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael experiences numerous severe and frightful demonstrations of violence in various ways. These cases of violence scar his life for quite a while, however there are some learning focuses that come extremely close to violence. A few things that stem from the effects of Ishmael's fierce encounters are, repulsiveness of memories, posttraumatic stress disorder and a loss of innocence.
Starting a calm day in Sierra Leone to surviving, and being trafficked into the army is what Ishmael Beah experiences as a child. A Long Way Gone is a memoir of a child soldier, Ishmael Beah, and the memoir shows the experiences he has throughout his childhood. Beah experiences trauma of the war just like all of the other child soldiers. Ishmael is one of the very little amount that survive the war. The three main themes in A Long Way Gone are the themes of survival, healing, and memory.
Manipulation is a key factor in the outbreak of a war. Ishmael Beah discusses the several instances of manipulation that occur in Sierra Leone. In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah discuses his life during the civil war outbreak in Sierra Leone. He explains how the affects of war affected in both a positive and negative connotation. Several publishers seek a better understanding of the struggle that Beat faces during the time of the civil war. Throughout the novel, Beah discusses the damage Sierra Leone goes through. He learns valuable lessons throughout his time in combat, which he seeks to share with others. Although Beah describes the importance of soldiers in a time of war, he believes in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone”, that awareness should
When most people of think of war, they generally think of the glorified aspects. Love and violence. Or perhaps their minds are drawn to an image of a soldier’s homecoming: A father embracing his son, crying tears of joy, all while the solider relays his experiences of the war among celebratory decorations. He is now considered a hero. But what difficulties has he faced to get there? This is the side of war that many of us don’t recognize. In the memoir, A Long Way Gone, author and protagonist, Ishmael Beah, experiences civil war and its effects first hand when he is forced into becoming a child soldier in the poor third world country of Sierra Leone. As the novel progresses, Ishmael becomes increasingly addicted to drugs,
Ishmael Beah had a really tough life throughout his childhood and teenage years. In his literary work, A Long Way
Sierra Leone has a large history behind its persistent conflict. From being colonized under the British Crown in 1808 after the slave trade became illegal to becoming independent of the British in 1961 and engaging in a civil