Brief Summary Of Arrangement Of Book

Ishmael Beah is described as a pre-teen, with a love of rap and hip-hop music. He finishes as a drug-addicted killing machine, out avenging the death of his entire family. Before being rescued by a United Nations Program, and eventually fleeing to New York for rehabilitation, it is a tragic and harrowing tale that gives substance to the term ‘Boy Soldier’, that isn’t really understood in most cases. Ishmael gives a gentle portrayal of his life, before the war reached his small village and forever changed his life. Abruptly he becomes fugitive fleeing for his life and eventually into a corrupted teen.

I know I can’t even imagine what type of problem that these kid soldiers had to overcome not just to survive but to become normal people again. Although things didn’t go as well as Ishmael Beah planned for his life. I was amazed by his courage and inspired that someone who could go through all that crazy stuff and fight through it to still be successful. I think you should read the book also it’s a good reminder that if he can go from kid soldier to a New York author then our possibilities are limitless

The first and most important theme is war is hell. The horrors and tragedy that Ishmael relates to the reader are almost unbelievable. The atrocities committed against innocent civilians give new meaning to the idea of war as well.

The writing choices made by Ishmael Beah strengthens his writing and changes the pace of the book. We can see that he often brings up old memories; frequently telling old stories. The intention for doing this is so the readers can see what things were like before the war and to show how bad things have gotten. An example of this is when Beah tells a story about him and Junior talking and skipping rocks on the water. His story explains the fun they had with the simplest things - a stone being the example, claiming it was “magic.”

Beah tells Esther a story from when he was a child soldier and how after being shot in the foot the doctor performed surgery without anesthesia and Beah passed out due to the pain, Esther after hearing the story cries and says it is not Beah’s fault that he experienced this Beah gets angry at this and storms out of the hospital. Esther uses music to lure him back into therapy, stating “I have to examine you while you listen to music” (Beah 154). Beah continues to go back to therapy and listen to music artists like Bob Marley with Esther while talking about his past trauma. One day while at the rehabilitation center observers from the UN, UNICEF, and several non-governmental organizations arrive to see the rehabilitation center, the boys at the rehabilitation center put on a talent show for them. Beah says “I read a monologue from Julius Caesar and performed a short hip-hop play about the redemption of a former child soldier that I wrote with Esther’s encouragement” (Beah 171).

You’ve probably heard of many famous wars like World War 1 and World War 11. What about the wars that aren’t so known but still have huge effects on people? In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, “A Long Way Gone”, every choice he makes decides life or death. Ishmael goes from a normal life in Sierra Leone to being on the run to survive the war. The struggle to survive makes Ishmael who he is after the war and how he matures through the war.

In the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah states that his life’s journey has been a huge obstacle, but has learned to overcome that struggle by venting while the two contradictory sides continue their battling. Beah accomplishes his goal of explaining to the reader his point of view through the use of rhetorical questions, scenic narration, and parallelism. Ishmael Beah’s apparent purpose is to share personal accounts of his life with his fellow country men, in a country where war affects people to a level beyond the imagination. He is able to apply his purpose using a grotesque and bitter tone. Beah approaches his audience of ordinary people in this manner in order to vent his feelings about war by

In Ishmael Beahs memoir A Long Way Gone the author’s natural images reveals his scramble to stay mentally stable. Understanding Beah is only 12 years old; Beah is confused as he loses all his family and friends and scrambles to stay alive as he runs from the rebels who have brutality kill anyone who stand in there way. To begin, in the stillness of nature Beah struggles to keep his mind from wondering.

In the introduction of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he writes, “There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a faraway and different land. It wasn’t until refugees started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country” (Beah 1). During this statement Beah says that he is completely oblivious to the war around him. These people living in Sierra Leone had adapted to the war to the point where their perception had been altered. With this memoir he shares his experiences and obstacles he faces throughout the war to become a beckon of hope in this despairing country. Ishmael uses his social skills, timely luck, and emotional strength, to find the courage to overcome these adversities and survive in and out of the war.

Ishamael Beah’s resilience allowed him to be adaptable to many different and difficult situations. In the beginning of the book Ishmael and his friends decide to go to Mattru Jong for a talent show. As they begin to go there they hear that the war has hit the mining areas. Ishmael and his friends knew that they may never be able to find their families again. Ishmael adapted very quickly and never gave up on trying to find them. “For more than three hours, we stayed at the Wharf, anxiously waiting and expecting to see our families or to talk to someone who had seen them.” (Beah 10) They never heard any news of them. Ishmael, Junior, Talloi begin to travel back saying goodbye to their friends. Ismael and they boys saw their first look, at what the war was about. They saw blood everywhere, parents carrying their dead children and people in pain. As Ismael, Junior and Talloi traveled

Ishmael Beah was a young boy when his world turned upside down after Sierra Leone was attacked by rebels. He had lost the most important thing in his life, his family. He and his brother Junior set out to find a safe haven during the war. While they were staying in a village, it was attacked by the rebels. He and Junior were separated and he has to embark on this dreadful journey with strangers. He survived many attacks on different villages and finally made it to the safe

Despite the violence caused by the children, one of the staffers, Nurse Esther, becomes interested in Ishmael, learning about his childhood love of rap music. As a gift Esther gets him a rap cassette and Walkman, when she takes Ishmael and his friend Alhaji to the city. It is through this connection and his numerous counseling experiences with Esther that Ishmael eventually turns away from his violent self and starts to heal from his mental wounds.

Life is full of many unknowns. It is unknown what will happen tomorrow, what will happen next week, next month, next year, and twenty years from now. Some unknowns are negligible. For instance, like what will be served for dinner next Sunday. But some unknowns are life-changing. Ishmael Beah’s and Mariatu Kamara’s unknowns were the wars that lead to the demolition of their childhoods. But, both fortunate enough to survive their civil wars, Beah and Kamara have written memoirs of their experiences in the war, Beah, as a child soldier in the war, and Kamara, as a child victim of the war. This provides vastly different perspectives, however, due to Ismael Beah’s A Long Way Gone containing more psychological and physical aspects of the war, it

Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or

Ishmael Beah was a boy from Sierra Leone who became a soldier in the country`s tragic civil war. He spent nearly all his childhood running away from the war and eventually ended up joining the army. During difficult times, Ishmael always held on to hope to continue his life’s journey. In A Long Way Gone, the theme is “Always have hope”, and is shown through Ishmael Beah’s hope for a better life, to find his family, and through the rehab staff`s hope for the boy soldiers.