Long Way Gone Themes

1316 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ishmael by daniel quinn literary analysis

There were many themes illustrated throughout the memoir, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael beah. These themes include survival/resilience despite great suffering, the loss of innocence, the importance of family/heritage, the power of hope and dreams, the effects of injustice on the individual, and the importance of social and political responsibility. Every theme listed has a great meaning, and the author puts them in there for the readers to analyze and take with them when they finish reading the book. The theme of survival/resilience despite great suffering was shown throughout the book. Ishmael’s ventures from village to village while running away from the RUF, going through treacherous circumstances such as burning sand, angry citizens, and even …show more content…

An example of social responsibility is when the lieutenant gives up some of his young soldiers to UNICEF (which hurts his army’s power) because he knows that they will have better lives there as a growing child. A time where political responsibility is shown is the UNICEF staff has gone through a lot of troubles with rehabilitating their rescued children. Whether it be the former soldiers fighting against each other, fighting the staff, or them just not wanting to try and better themselves throughout the rehabilitation process, the staff always knows how to better the situation and they never give up on their kids. Whenever the kids at rehabilitation would hurt the staff misbehave the staff would say, “It is not your fault that you did such a thing to me,”, stated on page 140, line 13. Another example was when the kids were misbehaving at their new school, and instead of the instructor yelling or getting mad, he said, on page 148, line 24, “It’s not your fault that you cannot sit still in class You will be able to do so in time.” The staff at Benin home had good hearts and continually tried to better the former soldiers lives as much as they could. In conclusion, there is a numerous amount of themes in the book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. These themes, along with other morals shown in the book, can be learned by the books readers, and Ishmael problems can relate to other people’s problems, which can help them get through the struggles they are having in today’s

Show More
Related

  • Character Analysis Of Ishmael's Lessons From 'Bra Spider'

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ishmael Beah Prediction

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I looked at the front and back of A Long Way Gone, I’ve predicted that the story will take place in Sierra Leone, Africa. On the back cover, there is a summary that describes what Ishmael Beah had experienced as a very young child. The photograph on the front cover is a visual representation of the book. From this picture, I can predict that Ishmael was forced to carry many weapons and he is walking often to each destination. I came to this prediction because the boy in the picture is carrying many weapons and I can only assume that it wasn’t his choice to carry a lot of weapons on his back due to the exhaustion on his face. I came to the prediction that Ishmael walked a lot because in the photo, there are holes on the heels of his shoes and the straps are breaking apart.

    Read More

  • Ishmael's Innocence In A Long Way Gone

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a child, Ishmael Beah seemed like he was playful, curious, and adventurous. He had a family that loved him, and he had friends that supported him. Before the war, Ishmael had a childhood that was similar to most of the children in the United States. Unfortunately, the love and support Ishmael grew accustom to quickly vanished. His childhood and his innocence abruptly ended when he was forced to grow up due to the Sierra Leone Civil War. In 1991, Ishmael thought about survival rather than trivial things. Where was he going to go? What was he going to eat? Was he going to make it out of the war alive? The former questions were the thoughts that occupied Ishmaels mind. Despite his efforts, Ishmael became an unwilling participant in the war. At the age of thirteen, he became a

    Read More

  • Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

    1483 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Quotes

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hope enables people to move on by providing the thought that maybe tomorrow’s events will be better than today’s. Hope is a theme that remains constant in every part of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael begins the novel optimistic, believing he will find his family again. This optimism is later lost when Ishmael is recruited by the army to fight against the rebels, causing him to become addicted to drugs and the thrill of killing. Three years after his recruitment, Ishmael is rescued by UNICEF-a group dedicated to rehabilitating child soldiers. During his rehabilitation, Ishmael discovers hope once more by relearning how to trust, love, and have the will to survive. The presence of hope throughout A Long Way Gone enables Ishmael to have an ability to move on and a will to survive that he lacks when he loses hope.

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Survival Essay

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • War and the Loss of Innocence

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah deals with his loss of innocence as he is forced to join the children army of Sierra Leone in the country's civil war after being conscripted to the army that once destroyed his town in order for Ishmael to survive. His memoir acts as a voice to show the many difficulties that the members of Sierra Leone's child army had to suffer through and their day to day struggle to survive in the worst of conditions. In order to escape the perils and trials of war, Ishmael loses his innocence as he transitions from a child who liked to rap with his friends to a cold blooded solider in the army during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through his transition, Ishmael is forced to resort to the addiction of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and “brown-brown” just so that he, along with the other members of the child army can have the courage to be able to kill their fellow countrymen and slaughter entire towns who stand in their paths. In order to portray his struggles in the army, Ishmael uses the dramatic elements of memories explained using flashback, dialogue, and first-person narration in order to establish the theme of the memoir being how war causes for a child to lose its innocence. The transition shown in the memoir illustrates how the title of the novel, A Long Way Gone, was chosen because it demonstrates how he is a long way gone psychologically, emotionally, and physically, from the child that he was when the memoir begins to the soldier that he is forced to become.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Revenge In A Long Way Gone

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ishmael’s search for revenge ended when he was taken out of the front lines of the war by

    Read More

  • What Is The Differences Between Night And A Long Way Gone By Elie Wiesel

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.’”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Themes In Battle Royal, By Ralph Ellison

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The story “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison displays a few specific themes through the story which are easy to depict. A few themes from this story are, first racism and finding his self identity, then the danger of fighting stereotype with stereotype, and last blindness. These themes play an important role in the story to better help the reader understand it.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the first themes that comes to mind when one reads this book is the

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of John Demos' The Unredeemed Captive

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    The major themes of the book are directly related to the themes which John Demos uses to tell this story. The storyline moves on though the evolution of one theme to the next. The function of these major sections is to allow the reader to relate to John Williams overall state of mind as the story unfold. By implementing these major themes into his work, John Demos make it possible for the reader to fully understand the story from beginning to end.

    Read More

More about Long Way Gone Themes

Open Document