Impact of War and Violence on Children in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

"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

A long way gone by Ishmael Beah, attempts to evoke a powerful response from the leader, by using vivid descriptions to show how he has become emotionally traumatized by the acts of violence in the war. The reader then sympathizes with Ishmael and begins to understand the lasting and deep, emotional pain that Ishmael deals with on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, it brings about a needless cycle of cruelty. Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone is his autobiography, it takes us on a heart-wrenching journey through his childhood in Sierra Leone. Once living in a peaceful and happy country, the idealism was shattered by a brutal civil war.

A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.

A Long Way Gone is a novel written by Ishmael Beah. He’s a child who lost everything extremely valuable to him, due to war. Ishmael uses imagery, descriptive writing, and emotions to show the challenges it took to survive the war. As the war goes on, Ishmael describes the changes of how Mogbwemo, the village he was raised in, and his neighborhood, of how it went from peaceful to violence, and how the war had impact him and the people of Sierra Leone.

The book I chose to read for my summer reading assignment was A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. By judging this book by its title, I knew it was going to be a nonfiction piece focusing on one person’s experience on this gruesome topic. I expected this novel to graphic and eye opening about the life of a child soldier.

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.

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 by Ishmael Beah, attempts to evoke a powerful response from the leader, by using vivid descriptions to show how he has become emotionally traumatized by the acts of violence in the war. The reader then sympathizes with Ishmael and begins to understand the lasting and deep, emotional pain that Ishmael deals with on a daily basis.

The novel A Long Way Gone was written by Ishmael Beah, a now thirty-six year old from Sierra Leone. This novel dives into the complicated childhood of the author, as well as many of his childhood friends. Published by Sarah Crichton Books, it was released in 2007 in New York City. The story takes place in the early nineteen nineties, when Ishmael is entering adolescence. This book predominantly takes place in Sierra Leone, a small country in Western Africa. As the book advances, it tells the story of Ishmael and his traumatic years as a boy soldier, as well as his rehabilitation years. A Long Way Gone also addresses the hardships families face during war including famine and poverty, in conjunction with the destruction of families. This book clearly demonstrates the oppression young men at this time faced, as they were forced to commit mass murder, as well as how their lives after were affected by their burdensome pre adulthood. This book aims to educate its readers about the struggles facing enslaved children that are forced to become soldiers. I think the novel vividly informs the reader of the issues covered and connects to its readers We were all at one time the same age as Ishmael; and in my case, I am the same age as he is in the book. It greatly shows how my life differs from his, and how I could potentially want to do more for this cause or rethink how I appreciate my own life more.

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, 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 the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

In A long way gone, although Ishmael suffers from the atrocious status of the war, thanks to the help from various people and his efforts, he ultimately overcomes the adversity and his trauma and becomes a human rights activist to save and to defend those who are in the same situation as his childhood. Ishmael Beah, a 12-years boy, who loves rap music and dancing like general teenagers, begins to be racked with pain as he encounters the miserable war circumstance. The arduous situation of the war takes Ishmael’s family, his innocence, his identity of a child, and his childhood from him, but leaves the agony for him. To survive and to revenge on the rebels who murdered his family he enters the army. His life as a soldier traumatizes him. The war takes away his hope, dream, and pleasure, and makes him think he has: “no control over the future” (87). This claim demonstrates the replacement of his dream and delightful memory by the terrible and traumatic memory of the war. Even though those traumas, pain, and suffering ruin Ishmael’s life and mind, they force him to grow as a person and he ultimately overcomes them with his desire and other’s help. Ishmael’s change in attitude and

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,

Child soldiers are being used to fight these wars all over the world and it is very gruesome. The way that all of them are being treated is very disturbing. One article that I read that was published by “weebly” said that these children are being used as suicide bombers, sex slaves, and front line fighters in the war. I find this very hard to take in because if I put it into perspective I have no clue what I would do if I was put in their shoes. What they are going through is a very scary and difficult thing that no child of any age should have to go through and even any adult. Even though that would

Children are becoming easy targets on war by dragging and pulling them to it. Children die from a bombing without knowing that their life is ending soon. They will no longer have a fun in their life or have childish dreams, or even worst they won't be able to set goals or dream about their future jobs. The use of the candy and children toys to bomb them in Fizabad 1980 is yet the most ugly thing I ever imagined and think about in my whole life. How could they even think about it as a weapon of war, people hearts are no longer has any kind of mercy. M. Siddieq Noorzoy writes about “The hazards of war have taken other forms as well. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported in 1999 that 31% of Afghan children had been victims of land mines. Even in 2007, land mine casualties numbered 811, many of them children. Children, like the general population, also have been subjected to dangerous radiation through aerial and ground attacks where depleted uranium bombs and shells have been used. Cluster bombs, resembling food containers, also have injured children.” War is more ugly than we think, and children are the most damaged because they don't enough power to fight back, the thoughts that they have is so innocent. They are not only victims, they are angels and the peace