Ishmael Beah's 'A Long Way Gone'

The book I have really enjoyed reading in the past year is “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah which is a story that has been making me want to not only read more, but also dig deeper into the subject. This amazing memoir was written in a first person perspective of being a soldier as a boy in the war of Sierra Leone. Ishmael’s writing style draws my attention because of its order of the story, emotional appeals and imagery.

Ishmael Beah's 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone, tells the story of a boy who's not so lucky. The book records his real-life experiences as a 12-year-old caught up in a bloody civil war in his home country of Sierra Leone. When his village is attacked by rebel fighters, Ishmael loses his home and family. He's forced to wander around looking for food, hiding in the woods and trying to avoid getting gunned down by soldiers.

A Long Way Gone begins in Ishmael Beah’s early youth in 1993. A twist in a childhood that is unexpected. It all started from an attack by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in his village of Mogbwemo. At this time, he along with his older brother and two friends lost connection with their family. His first few chapters, he spend time looking back to home to get money for to purchase foods. When Ishmael and his groups run to the rebels, they were separated from one another. Then, he now noticed that his family has already been hit by the RUF, he started to

A Long Way Gone. Throughout the book he undergoes many changes in life from losing his family and friends to massacring his once neighbors and friendly school mates. Ishmael Beah is both a victim and a victimizer as he flees the ruthless RUF soldiers but, also finds himself craving the front lines of war where he is brainwashed to pillage and demolish the villages of the very civilians he is supposed to protect as a government soldier. While sharing

A book that will be read should not be judged by its cover because the importance is the word that is being written and the meaning that is being express by the writer experience. A Long Way Gone, an autobiography, written by Ishmael Bech need to be read. This book can lead to many connections that will bring back memories of many people. Including its wonderful description that is very understanding. However, one may disagree because this book contains much confusion due to the flashback. But because of the flashback it leads to having a better understanding for the reader to know more about Ishmael Bech.

In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah the main character, Ishmael Beah, encounters a lot of problems and all of those problems shape who he becomes throughout the story. Those obstacles make Ishmael more desperate to survive throughout the book. At the beginning of the book Ishmael isn 't ready for change. And when change comes with him losing his family he does not know what his next move is. He goes through villages begging for food and looking for sympathy. This was his first big issue for him. Later on in the book he is with a group of boys and a large problem occurs for them each day. He becomes more desperate as more things are thrown his way but still can 't completely deal with what is happening to him. He begins to steal, which at the start of the book he would have never done. Yet it was the need to survive that drove him to do this. He is captured by another group of soldiers. They take him in and make him feel like he has a family again. After Ishmael feels that he belongs he realizes that he must kill people to stay apart of the family that he longing for. He was desperate enough to do anything to be apart of a family again,which wills him to kill other people. All of the obstacles in the book drive him to want to stay alive more. So he became more willing to face his problems in unusual ways.

A Long way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah is a memoir that exposes the reader to a part of the world a majority of people know almost nothing about. An area where life is cut short by conflict and a blatant disregard for the value human life. Where Mothers lose their sons, families lose their homes and people lose their sense of morality. Yet, through these struggles, the resilience of the human spirit and psyche is exposed. Ishmael, through many points in his life was challenged physically, mentally, emotionally and was extremely close to being defeated; changed from the innocent boy he once was into a fiend. Important lessons can be learned from this struggle; Even the worst challenges can be overcome, we should value all that we have because it can all be taken away and also that there is much good and evil in the world we live in.

A Long Way Gone supports the thematic statement that prioritizing one’s own safety causes people to disregard the safety of others because

Senay Tsegehans Ms. Willow ENGC3S(04) 13 May 2024 A Long Way Gone Essay A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, recounts the author’s experience as a child soldier. In the first part of the novel, Ishmael Beah writes about his terrifying story as a child soldier in the civil war in Sierra Leone in his book A Long Way Gone.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Solider is a biography of a young man, Ishmael Beah, during his years of growing up as a child of war in Sierra Leone, Africa. The story begins in January of 1993 in his hometown village Mogbwemo. Beah who is twelve at the time is a part of hip-hop dance and music group with his brother Junior, and friend Talloi. The boys leave their village one day to the neighboring city to perform in their friend’s talent show. While the rap group is away, rebels attack their village resulting in the boys’ early return to search for their families. Upon returning to the village, the boys are welcomed by a deserted village suffering from the horrors of war, which becomes their new reality. Two of the major themes reoccurring throughout this book are the battle with maintaining innocence and companionship.

In "A Long Way Gone," Ishmael Beah recounts his arduous journey through the civil war in Sierra Leone, a journey fraught with the burdens of poverty. Born into destitution, Ishmael confronted hardships from an early age. The scarcity of food and the constant struggle to survive were daily realities in his impoverished village. When the war erupted, exacerbating their already dire circumstances, Ishmael and his family were thrust into an even deeper abyss of suffering. Growing up amidst poverty, Ishmael was intimately familiar with deprivation.

A Long Way Gone supports this idea of personal growth in its portrayal of the war. The entire memoir is such a raw portrayal of the trauma Beah endured while he was a child soldier. As Beah recounts his first experience on the battlefield, he says: “Bodies had begun to pile on top of each other near a short palm tree. I searched for Josiah.

Imagine you hear gunshots echoing through the woods. You begin to see soldiers running towards you with overwhelming aggression. You begin to run as fast as you can and flee from the terrifying men. A Long Way Gone , written by Ishmael Beah is a story that was written of the author's experiences in the Sierra Leone civil war. Ishmael was constantly faced with dangers and the terrors that came from this civil war. Ishmael begins happy with his family but by the end he has lost his family and has the traumatic experience of being a child soldier. In A Long Way Gone the consequences of war shown include, a change in native culture, loss of family, and death and injury to innocent people. These consequences were shown throughout the story and the civil war.

But this is not the case in “A Long Way Gone. This memoir starts off with Ishmael as an innocent child, this is soon destroyed in a blink of an eye. Ishmael never had a chance to be a kid due to the fact the age of 13 was the end of his childhood. Although the violent pursuit of rebels across Sierra Leone traumatized Ishmael, it is not until he is turned into a killer that he believes himself to have lost his innocence. At this point, Beah stops utilizing flashbacks to his childhood, clearly delineating his old "good" life with his new "bad" life.

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.