Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

The drastic change in Ishmael’s character is unexplainably noticeable. The book began with an innocent, troublesome and mischievous boy untouched by war, and by chapter fourteen, he was unrecognizable. I did not understand nor recall the boy I was reading, it was as if the points of view had been interchanged, and I was reading from the perspective of a blood thirsty soldier. He had become that soldier. The deterring character development that Ishmael undergoes during his time in the army is as sudden and shocking as the death of his family. Just as he was given a flicker of hope, it was snatched away from him mercilessly, along with his childhood and innocence. Ishmael had become one more among the mass, he was another brainwashed and drugged

Ishmael Beah, the author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, is a twelve-year old boy who is trapped inside a war zone in Sierra Leone, Africa. When his home town, Mattru Jong is attacked by “the rebels,” he is separated from his family and is forced to run from everything he once loved. Ishmael flees from town to town with other teenagers who face the same problems, trying to survive and escaping attacks from villagers. Beah writes, “People were terrified of boys our age. Some had heard rumors about young boys being forced by rebels to kill their families and burn their villages,” (Beah 37). At such a young age Ishmael was trying to survive off of what he had; sometimes he went days without food. Ishmael was deprived of more than just his clothing.

While being face to face with war, Ishmael illustrates what he, as well as his life, has become, “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector and my rule was to kill or be killed…” (Beah, p.126). With these declarations, the reader can clearly comprehend his lack of innocence and empathy. He has become a unfeeling, cold-blooded soldier trained to kill or be killed and survival is his ultimate goal. Later on in the book, the reader is informed of the barbaric scene that takes place in Benin Home, a rehabilitation center. When Ishmael arrives at this site, he ruthlessly interrogates a couple of his housemates “I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. 'Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?”(Beah, p.133). Undoubtedly, this is not normal behavior for a 15-year old and when he displays this conduct, it can be unquestionably said that Ishmael has lost all sense of innocence and emotion. In this section of his story, Ishmael is threatening to kill boys his own age, which shows how deviated he has become from his original character and sense. Both of these examples verify that Ishmael Beah in nowhere near the innocent, rap-enthusiast and family loving boy he once was. The child that was Ishmael Beah is now dead, and in his place stands a cold-hearted

”At first she just listened to me, and then gradually started asking questions to make me talk about the lives I had lived….‘None of these things are your fault,’ she would always say…I heard that phrase from every staff member--and frankly I had always hated it--I began that day to believe it.(164)” Ishmael Beah was a 12-year-old boy living in Sierra Leone at the beginning of the book. Sierra Leone was having a war which concluded too many people dying, and running trying to survive. Ishmael Beah joined the war from being 13 years old to 15 years old, he was drugged to have more energy and brainwashed to have the mindset to kill. Ishmael Beah uses characterization in order to show how Ishmael struggles to change from a child trying to survive, to a drugged ruthless soldier who must recover in rehabilitation.

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of these child soldiers  , Ishmael Beah is a child who lived most of his childhood in the war   . He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words according to  http://www.alongwaygone.com/index.html and his memoir “A Long Way Gone”. The war had made ishmael have perseverance  in the long run , inference that he was brainwashed by the war and that ishmael was a very hopeful child always wishing for better days.

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.

The second part of the book takes an uncompromising look at the difficulties this entailed for the boy soldier and his peers, who for a long time resist the most determined efforts to restore their humanity, their anger at having been taken from their family. Children are meant to be protected from violence and war. They are extremely vulnerable both physically and psychologically, to abuse and misguidance. They are easily influenced by those around them because they are young and incapable of forming independent opinions. Adult soldiers at Ishmael’s base were snorting brown brown and smoking marijuana, Ishmael, as naive as any child would be, was influenced by these people and looked up to the adults as role model and leader and so he began to do it as well. “I took turns at the guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown” The job of a soldier is to fight wars, to take lives, to kill if not be killed. If these children are taught hatred

Ishmael Beah was at the age of thirteen when his childhood and innocence was taken from him. For example, Beah says “My childhood had gone without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen”(30). It happened so quickly. He was frantic with worry. Beah was forced to join the Sierra Leone military. It was not until later he himself started to believe he has lost his innocence. At this young age he was killing the rebels that traumatized him purely to seek revenge and to survive. His hate for the rebels was very strong, “Whenever I looked at the rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many

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

Ishmael Beah, an African American boy, a human being, has been a victim of circumstance. More specifically, a victim of war and crimes against humanity. It is during this civil war, that he had to flee from his home village, Mogbwemo, and his family, due to a rebel attack. Though this was just the beginning as he traveled across the country, Sierra Leone, in order to escape the war. Eventually, he was caught in the village of Yele when the army or UNICEF forced him to become a boy soldier.

Ishmael Beah is someone who has lived through a lot. As a child, he grew up in Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone. His life was changed when war came into his country. Here, we will be exploring the transition from being an innocent child to becoming a soldier, to being a scarred adult.

Ishmael Beah: Child Soldier Many children in countries like Sierra Leone are surrounded by war since they were young. They grow up in a community where playing outside and being able to roam around is unknown. A majority of children in societies like Sierra Leone are brainwashed from a young age and sent to war as soon as they are strong enough to hold a gun. Ishmael Beah is a heroic figure in the Sierra Leone community, not only did he survive the brutality of war but was able to overcome his obstacles and is now able to advocate for ending children in war.

Many children in the world have encountered or are now encountering internal conflicts within their region that can cause much harm to not only their physical bodies but also to their emotional well-being. In Ishmael memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael explores the idea that the atrocities in the world can affect a child’s life traumatically by causing a loss of innocence within the child, and Beah does this through his use of imagery, flashbacks and characters. The atrocities in the world can affect a child’s life by causing a loss of innocence within the child. Unfortunately, a child from a certain part of the world, like Beah, can struggle with meeting with the conflict that is happening within the child’s country face-to-face, and that conflict

The ancient greeks have taught humans many lessons that have shaped the lives and actions of people in today’s society. These lessons can be found everywhere; in greek myths, plays, or in books that were influenced by the ancient greeks. The lessons taught in these stories are shown everyday in the actions of the people in this world. There is a countless number of things that have been taught to us by the greeks. One of, if not the most important one is, having hubris or hubristic qualities inevitably leads to consequences.

The biggest artistic merit is the character development. Not only does Dusty, the protagonist, develop as a character thought out the film the other characters do as well. One of the most significant developments deals with the idea that you should help other no matter the consequences. One of the side characters has their own moral dilemma about half way through the film. She, Ishani, is going a brand new propeller form Ripslinger, the antagonist who is trying to cheat to have Dusty lose the race. Ishani takes the propeller, a Sky Slycer Mark Five, and tells Dusty a short cut for the next leg of the race. The catch is that she knows taking that route will more than likely kill him. Dusty manages to make it through the shortcut unscaved. So,