When we look back to our childhood, we have memories of playgrounds, games, our friends and our family, not in our darkest nightmares we could imagine ourselves fighting in warfare. There are about 300,000 children young as nine years old involved in armed conflicts all around the world today. This problem is most common in Africa. Ishmael Beah was a boy soldier and now at the age of twenty-six tells a gripping story. At the age of twelve, he left his home and family because of the rebel attacks and wandered a land that kept him away from violence. At the age of thirteen he had become a soldier. He saw his childhood pass by him and became capable of terrible acts. At some point he was released by the army and sent to a rehabilitation center of UNICEF, there he had to struggle with his humanity, which was suppressed till then, and move back in the world of citizens. But how did all of these events made him who he is now? How did this part of his life shaped him to be the man he is now? These events that took place so early in his life were factors that influenced his personality, ideas and dreams. Leaving his home and family, becoming a soldier and then ending in the rehabilitation center defined Ishael Beah's character and personality. The first wave that struck Ishmael's childhood and transformed him into a responsible young man was the loss of him family and home. One day, Ishmael returned to a village which was terrified and demolished of the rebel attack. He could never imagine that this village was the same one with the one he had been playing, raping, dancing and going to school. He could never imagine that this would be the last time he would see his family again. He could never imagine that his life would change forever ... ... middle of paper ... ...e he was able to grasp the fundamentals of morality. After experiencing many deaths, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, Ishmael became more indifferent. He became more violent, willingly killing people, just like the rebels that had so brutally killed his family. “The prisoner was simply another rebel who was responsible for the death of [his] family, as [he] had come to truly believe...[he] grabbed the man's head and slit his throat in one fluid motion" (Beah, pg.124-125). He was forced to grow up immediately and be smart so that he survives. All the deaths he experienced, all of the emotions he lived, all the images he saw have made him a stronger adult that had seen the worst side of the human race and could handle any situation in his future. Lastly, in the rehabilitation center, Ishmael learned how to live with his past and this was an advantage to his personality.
Throughout the book the audience has seen Ishmael go through adventure and sorrow. In the novel Ishmael is forced to go to war at age thirteen, but what keeps him going were his grandmother's wise words. His grandmother was the one who told him powerful lessons that he could use in real life. These lesson that Ishmael is keeping him grounded is not only from his grandmother but also from his friends. Lessons that were seen by the readers are “wild pigs”, “Bra Spider”, and the story about the moon.
...g that throughout the book, Ishmael is in constant need of a friend to help him in situations like the main plot I mentioned earlier. He is very lucky and makes many of those friends he needs by the end of the book.
Throughout the course of this novel, Ishmael Beah keeps the readers on the edge of their seat by incorporating interchanging tones. At the beginning of the novel, the tone can be depicted as naïve, for Beah was unaware to what was actually occurring with the rebels. Eventually, the tone shifts to being very cynical and dark when he depicts the fighting he has endured both physically and mentally. However, the most game changing tone is towards the end of the novel in chapters nineteen and twenty. His tone can be understood as independent or prevailing. It can be portrayed as independent because Beah learns how to survive on his own and to take care of himself. At the same time, it is perceived as prevailing and uplifting because Beah was able to demonstrate that there is hope. Later in the novel, Beah travels to
Ishmael was taken from the wild and held captive in a zoo, a circus, and a gazebo. During his time in various types of captivity, Ishmael was able to develop a sense of self and a better understanding of the world around him. Ishmael states that the narrator and those who share the same culture are “captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order live” (Quinn, 15). He goes to explain that releasing humanity from captivity is crucial for survival, but humans are unable to see the bars of the cage. Using the cage as a metaphor, Quinn is referring to human culture and how they do not see the harm it’s causing. As the novel progresses, it elaborates on how culture came about and why certain people inherit certain cultures. Ishmael refers to a story as the explanation of the relationship between humans, the world and the gods. He defines to enact is to live as if the story is a reality. Ishmael suggest that humans are captives of story, comparing them to the people of Nazi Germany who were held captive by Hitler’s
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael survives and describes his journey while at war. Ishmael was a 13 year old who is forced to become a child soldier. He struggles through a variety of problems. In his journey, he was separated from his family and mostly running for his life. Later on, he has no problem killing people and picking up his gun. In fact, anyone can be evil at any certain time with kids changing, getting drugged, and going back to war.
Ishmael also survives another dreadful event when he goes through the war. While trying to find refuge from the war, Ishmael and his friends ironically end up joining the army, to fight against the rebels. Over the course of his time in the war, Ishmael would be exposed to unparalleled violence day in and day out. During these times Ishmael says “Sometimes we were asked to leave for war in the middle of a movie. We would come back hours later after killing many people and continue the movie as if we had just returned from intermission. We were always either at the front lines, watching a movie, or doing drugs. There was no time to be alone or to think” (p. 124). This quote perfectly sums up the danger that Ishmael experienced during the war. Most of this danger however, was not the fact that he was likely to be injured or killed. Granted, he was on the front lines numerous days a week and snuck behind enemy lines frequently, both tasks which could have resulted in an injury, or worse, death, but the real dangers he faced during these times were dehumanization he faced constantly. Everyday, he either went out into the
Most people who Ishmael came in contact with and himself, had a conflict between trust and survival. This conflict became an effect of the war in which many people suffered because they chose to live over a possible death. Beah retells his traumatic experience that gives countless situations where survival is picked over trust. In a world without war trust and survival can be
...rough many difficult trials and tribulations that resulted in his loss of innocence after he became a part of the child army in Sierra Leone. Those experiences caused for him, like the other members of the child army, to change physically because of his drug addiction, psychologically because of his repressed memories, and emotionally, from the desensitization to warfare and death that was a part of his training. This caused for Ishmael to transform from a young innocent boy to a killing machine exploited by his military officials. Ishmael was able to convey his loss of innocence in his memoir through the use of dialogue, first-person narration, and by telling of memories he had through flashbacks. The loss of innocence tied into the title of the memoir because emotionally, physically, and psychologically, he was a long way gone from the boy he was before the army.
In addition to him having to overcome difficult odds in order to survive for himself, he also had to care for his weakening father. A similar situation occurs in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, however, Ishmael accepts the situation and is able to defend himself. While they differ in their ability to defend themselves, they both relate in that they need to fight, both mentally and physically, in order to survive. not only because of the hardships they faced, but also because of what they had to do in order to survive. “‘I have never spoken about the Holocaust except in one book.’”
Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CHRONOLIGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF EVENTS THAT LEAD TO CONFLICTS 3 CONCLUSION 5 INTRODUCTION An attention-grabbing story of a youngster’s voyage from beginning to end. In “A LONG WAY GONE,” Ishmael Beah, at present twenty six years old, tells a fascinating story he has always kept from everyone. When he was twelve years of age, he escaped attacking the revolutionaries and roamed a land rendered distorted by violence. By thirteen, he’d been chosen by the government, military and Ishmael Beah.
To go along with my look at the film today, I will also explain a bit about Ishmael as well. I wrote the book the in 1992 and it has been called a philosophical novel for the themes and questions that I put into the story. It examines mythology, its effects on the ethics of others, and how that can relate to the sustainability of the environment. In the novel I use the style of a Socratic dialogue in order to deconstruct the notion that humans are the pinnacle of biological evolution. I break down that perception in the book in order to create a more realistic interpretation of who humans are and what they represent to the earth.
His perspective in life has changed he does not understand how people can act and live so freely and foolishly anymore, he stays up at night and is affected from the loss of his arm, he can not move on and start a relationship. Coming back from his time in the marines Ishmael started to see life differently, Guterson writes, “People appeared enormously foolish to. He understood that they were only animated cavities full of jelly and strings and liquids. He had seen the insides of jaggedly ripped-open dead people. He knew, for instance, what brains looked like spilling out of somebody's head. In the context of this, much of what went on in normal life seemed wholly and disturbingly ridiculous. (Gutereson 35).” With Ishmael's PTSD he has continuous flashbacks that stop him from moving on in life and changing his morbid perspective and outlook on it. From continuously feeling like people do not understand life or the way they could go on like nothing when others can not. Ishmael’s change and outlook on life something clearly seen in many veterans, but while others tried to continue with their life Ishmael did not know how to, Guterson states, “ I can't really understand… but you - you went numb, Ishmael. And you’ve stayed numb all these
Ishmael really loves his brother, and you can really tell with this statement. He does not want to lose his brother. He has already been separated from the rest of his family and it would hurt him so much if he lost his brother. You can tell that Ishmael looks up to his brother after everything that has happened so far in the story. His heart throbs with pain as he sees his brother trying to escape the madness going on by pretending to be dead.
Because the story ends here it is unknown if Ishmael experience has answered some questions for him while on his life journey. It is a pleasant thought that he would return to land and begin to live his life to the fullest because he can now realize that he should use his education to its highest expectation and potential.