How Does Ishmael Beah Use PTSD In A Long Way Gone

"We went from children who were afraid of gunshots to now children who were gunshots… Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water" (Barnett, 2012). Ishmael Beah, the main character and writer of the novel A Long Way Gone is a clear example of the loss of innocence that war causes. During the Sierra Leone’s civil war, Beah is recruited as a child soldier and eventually turned into a cold-blooded killer with no sign of naivety in his body. At a tender age, Beah is trained to kill, mutilate and terrify dozens of people, which causes him to be bared to a flood of disturbing scenes; transform into a murderer; loose all sense of emotion; and in time, lose his innocence. In the novel A Long Way Gone, the reader can view the multiple events

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

Kids forced to kill other kids. Made to take drugs and destroy human life each and every day. This is not a young man’s typical lifestyle, but it is for child soldiers that were made to fight in the Civil War in Sierra Leone. In the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, he describes the atrocities he faces and actually does himself. The reader learns how Ishmeal fights for his country but is permanently scarred due to the trauma he is put through.

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.

Bang! Bang! “At that instant several gunshots, which sounded like thunder striking the tin-roofed houses, took over town. The sound of guns was so terrifying it confused everyone” (Beah 23). In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys his amazing journey through war and hardship as a child soldier. Sierra Leone--a country on the western coast of Africa--was embroiled in a bloody civil war in the 1990’s. Battles multiplied as bloodshed abounded and as a child in Sierra Leone Ishmael Beah was forced to survive, find food, and face unimaginable dangers. Running from the battle front was also a routine ordeal. At age 13 Beah was captured by the military and brainwashed into using guns and drugs. As a child soldier he perpetrated and witnessed a great deal of violence. At 15 he was rescued and taken to a rehabilitation center. With time and continual treatment, Beah was able to recover, to some extent, and reconnect with his Uncle Tommy who adopted him. He was later chosen to speak to the United Nations in New York City about his experiences as a child soldier. When he returned to Sierra Leone, war broke out throughout in the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and he managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone, he conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

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.

PTSD is one mental health issue that can result from a great deal of distress that a person may experience after a devastating event involving any type of physical trauma or threat of physical harm (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A child who develops PTSD either “directly experienced the traumatic event(s), witnessed, in person, the event(s) as it occurred to others, learned that the traumatic event(s) occurred to a close family member or friend or experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s)” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Traumatic events are normally unavoidable and uncontrollable. It may overwhelm a child and affect his or her sense of control and safety. Single, brief, and unanticipated events are classified as

Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A long Way Gone, is very descriptive and has a very effective way of painting a picture in the reader’s mind of what he went through as a boy soldier. Throughout the memoir, Beah used quite a few statements that impacted me emotionally, on a personal level. His vivid detail, word choice and how personal, yet professional he kept his writing led me to understand how exactly the war affected him, and everyone else who lived, and lives, in Sierra Leone.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, tells of the experiences in his intense journey through Sierra Leone during the outbreak of war. Beah had to learn to survive the harsh outcome of the war, resulting in the loss of those whom were close to him, family and friends, and trust in people. The book has a recurring theme of nature and the natural world. In the book, the world at night, as well as the moon, serves as both a safeguard and a bringer of bereavement.

Throughout the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah retells his accounts of PTSD. He describes how this disorder has affected his life after he was rescued from the Sierra Leone Civil War. There currently are three million recorded cases of PTSD per year. That number only applies to the United States. Soldiers and many other types of people can develop a case of PTSD and I decided to further investigate this topic because of the wide range of people that this disorder affects. My grandfather was unfortunate enough to have a case of PTSD (he was a soldier in Vietnam), and this personal connection is another reason that I want to discover more about this topic.

Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the aspects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation with war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as young boy and the many issues he faces while living in

Some soldiers develop PTSD while others do not. It is easier for people to develop this disorder if they've dealt with trauma in their childhood such as physical abuse. Others with a pre-Vietnam psychiatric disorder other than PTSD. People who were also in prison and caused harm to others are more likely to get PTSD than people who weren't exposed to these happenings. Even simply being exposed to combat could trigger this disorder to take effect. PTSD is mostly seen in men 25 or younger

PTSD has become quite common in war veterans, seeing that they have been around people being brutally killed and probably have even killed people themselves. Essentially what is happening from a neuroscientific standpoint is that the brain has become damaged, in that an incorrect synapse fires, making the body react as if it was going through or seeing something terrible. The National Institution of Mental Health describes it like so:

“When I was seven I had an answer to this question that made sense to me….if I was the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament” (Beah 218). A Long Way Gone is a memoir of a child soldier who is the author himself Ishmael Beah. Beah around the ages of twelve to thirteen grew up in Sierra Leone during its civil war. During his story, Beah talks in a tone that is straight to the point, however many devices help the reader imagine his loss of innocence. Beah uses a series of flashbacks, symbols and motifs to illustrate his loss to his readers.

Children experiencing PTSD can experience wetting of the bed, loss or inability to speak, acting out the event, or being very clingy with another parent or child.” (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”) C. Main Point Three – Though there is not yet a cure for this disorder, there are many treatment options