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In A Long Way Gone, the author Ishmael Beah, a member of the HRWC RDAC offers the firsthand visualization of war from the perspective of a former soldier as a child. Beah born in Sierra Leone describes the violent civil war that destroyed his home time. Sierra Leone was one of the countries during the 1970s-1980s that when the government forces a child to transform into a young boy into a killing machine as one member of the army. Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He was forced to be a civil war soldier when he was 13. The Civil War was between the Sierra Leone government and a group of rebels called the RUF. As a young child, Beah was forced to shoot, kill, and torture people in the name of warfare. Later he was rescued …show more content…
When Ishmael reaches the United States, he is prepared by a quorum of instructors, who gives him speaking and grammar lessons. The main woman who helps Ishmael is his speaking director, Ms. Laura Simms. Ishmael returns to his uncle’s town when an instant invasion occurs. Ishmael is frustrated with the constant invasions and becomes a refugee to spare the pain. When escaping the town of Guinea, he takes the initiative to call Simms. Eventually, Laura adopts Ishmael and relocates him to the United States, where he completes his high school education & attends …show more content…
This time span contributed to the creation of the civil war of Sierra Leone. 400 freed slaves had returned to their home country with the help of abolitionists, so that they can settle down freely. Other freed slaves come to Sierra Leone, and became Freetown in early 1791. Along with the freed slaves were Ishmael and his brother and his friends. In March of 1991, the Revolutionary United Front forms a rebel group led by a former corporal named Foday Sankoh.The RUF's goal is to rid the country of the corrupt government, and they do this by causing violence and conquering the country. One military move that was successful, occurred in April of 1992, putting the National Provisional Ruling Council in charge. The NPRC are unable to stop the RUF fighters, and in 1995, the RUF controlled most of the country. The book itself does offer a lot of new insights into this time period because before reading this book, I had no clue how families were torn apart from their families as for their brothers and friends who they have grown up with. When reading this book from a soldier's first-person point of view, it gives the reader a deeper insight into how they were treated and what they had to go through in order to survive from these clans, and rebellious tribes. Where these male children became soldiers on the outside, the few that did not survive had been killed as soldiers in
Ishmael was taken from Africa at a young age and was sold to a zoo then a traveling carnival. Ishmael was bought by Walter Sokolow, a Jewish man whom had lost his family during the Holocaust. Not long after being purchased Ishmael learned to telepathically communicate with Walter. Mr. Sokolow brought Ishmael many books so he would be able to educate himself. Ishmael’s studies began with captivity but soon he became more interested in human nature. Upon Mr. Sokolow’s death Ishmael lived mostly independently in the city, with the help of the late Mr. Sokolow’s butler, Mr. Partridge. After all Ishmael has learned through his readings he seeks out students to help spread his knowledge. (Quinn, 1995)
His uncle and his family always provided him with a welcome and appreciative environment. After leaving the rehabilitation center and moved to his uncle’s household Beah and his cousins had the opportunity to share and spend time together. In Chapter 19 of his personal story, Beah described some of the memories and new experiences lived with his cousin. One meaningful memory was when Ishmael and Allie went to a dance club and were having fun. In that situation, Ishmael met and talked to individuals. Soon enough his life transformed into the life of a normal child. As he slowly moved on from his negative experiences during the war Beah valued and developed a close attachment towards his uncle, aunt, and cousin his new
First, who is Ishmael Chambers? He is the son of a very well-respected and prominent citizen of San Piedro, Arthur Chambers. When Arthur dies, Ishmael takes over the job as the local news reporter. He is introduced into the story as a journalist in the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto and appears to remain aloof, a passive third person eye that would analyze the information impartially. In addition to being a reporter, Ishmael is also a war veteran with a missing limb as a souvenir to boot. The reader gets the feeling that Ishmael plays a small and minor role in the upcoming plot. This, however, is false. As the book gathers momentum, it becomes increasingly clear that Ishmael ties into the fabric of the outcome of the story-from the childhood and young adult romance between Hatsue and him, to the emotional scene where his arm is amputated, to the final climax where he discovers the evidence that can clear Kabuo's name, Ishmael is the crux on which the storyline hinges.
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 starts his journey with a will to escape and survive the civil war of Sierra Leone in order to reunite with his mom, dad, and younger siblings, who fled their home when his village was attacked by rebels. Having only his older brother, who he escaped with, and a few friends by his side Ishmael is scared, but hopeful. When the brothers are captured by rebels, Ishmael’s belief in survival is small, as indicated by his fallible survival tactics when he “could hear the gunshots coming closer…[and] began to crawl farther into the bushes” (Beah 35). Ishmael wants to survive, but has little faith that he can. He is attempting to survive by hiding wherever he can- even where the rebels can easily find him. After escaping, Ishmael runs into a villager from his home tells him news on the whereabouts of his family. His optimism is high when the villager, Gasemu, tells Ishmael, “Your parents and brothers wil...
In language of the sort one might expect from a well educated man speaking with a friend, Ishmael told Quinn the story of his life. A large portion of it was spent in captivity, before a wealthy elderly man befriended and educated him. At the end of Ishmael's tale, Quinn was still somewhat befuddled.
As Ishmael’s life as a boy soldier slowly came to an end, these changes were the hardest to accept. He was given all knew clothes, lots of help, and was practically given his life back. A normal person would be happy to accept that, but Ishmael wasn’t exactly a normal person. His life was dedicated to being a boy soldier, and through that he develops a very violent mindset. When he is taken away from this atmosphere, he resorts to violence and has extreme drug withdrawal. ALong with that, he had severe migraines and wanted to be fighting for his country. Many other soldiers looked up to him for his dedication and contribution. Even though all they wanted to do was help him, he just wanted to fight.
In the book “A long way gone” written by Ishamel Beah, the main character transforms from being an innocent child into a hungry and thirsty survivalist that is capable of more than one could imagine. This highlights one of the biggest fears assumed with the war. No matter how innocent and gentle a person can be, once he is placed in the context of a war, his mind can completely switch to being a survivalist and that often leads to a transformation into a very brutal person that bases his life around basic survival needs. One of the examples of the transformation could be traced in the part when Ishamel end up being alone because he was split up from his friend and realises that isolation from people would make him safer however isolation also
This novel not just only uses figurative language to let the reader’s mind imagine, but it also includes strong word choice. In other words, I would recommend this novel to everyone with any interest because this book allows the audience to sympathize with the author as they read along. Survival, revenge, and family were important to Ishmael. Personally, I would have agreed to take the same actions as Ishmael did and you would too. No matter what choices you choose in life, it's up to you. Like one had said, “If you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe, you'll succeed.” Without the experiences and failures, there's no success, which Ishmael
Ishmael Beah is his full name. He is a Sierra Leonean author. The title of the biography book is
The civil war of Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002. In this civil war approximately fifteen thousand kids were forced to become soldiers. Either by being kidnapped or by having their lives threatened. The situation was an extremely sad one. They had no choice weather they wanted to be soldiers or not. Like Ishmael said in A Long Way Gone, “It was either kill or be killed.” This situation is one where most people would not even be able to imagine themselves in. Ishmael Beah was a boy who suffered, because of the civil war. His family was killed and he was forced to become a soldier for the military. He eventually was rescued by UNICEF and eventually moved to the United States. For a decade, there has been a war between Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government. There have been an unacceptable number of kids that have been used as soldiers in this war. Approximately, thirty thousand youngsters have been forced into becoming soldiers. In contrast to Sierra Leone, the soldiers here are only for the drug cartels, but in Sierra Leone even the government made the children become soldiers too. Just like the children of Sierra Leone, the children of Mexico are also kidnapped or threatened into becoming soldiers. Once captured, they are transformed into belligerent
Ishmael Beah is a native of Sierra Leone, which is located in Northern Africa. He was a
War is an inevitable struggle that humanity constantly faces. It is best described by the words of Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher; “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” There are many consequences of war, such as economic, developmental and security: however an important one is humanitarian, more specifically, the psychological effect that war and violence impacts on the population. In most literature, the protagonist in a war event is often depicted as an older individual, one who is in their adult years, and their journey through the event. Nevertheless in Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief both of the protagonists are both considerably younger than
Imagine being a twelve year old boy deciding whether to kill or be killed. A young child named Ishmael Beah faced this challenge during the Sierra Leone Civil War. He later wrote about his journey in his memoir A Long Way Gone. Caught in the middle of a deadly war, Ishmael was forced to become a child soldier. While acting as a soldier, he was obligated to eliminate everyone in sight, as required by the government. Two years of Ishmael’s life consisted of war. He, unfortunately, experienced both parts of it: being a victim and the individual who is torturing the victim.
Esther and Ishmael began to have a close relationship. When Ishmael first meets Esther, Esther asked Ishmael if he wants to be her friend and Ishmael says “are you sure you want to be my friend?” and Esther says “maybe not”... but then she says “I am your nurse thats all. If you want to be friends with me, you will have to ask me and I will have to trust you first”, Ishmael smiles immediately because he was thinking the exact same thing. Esther becomes a really good friend to Ishmael and Ishmael really likes her because he feels like she is one of the only people he can really talk to about personally things or just anything in general without being judged. Esther also gets Ishmael the gift of a walkman and cassette player, which made Ishmael very happy and reminded him of his childhood of performing at talent shows and making up songs and dances. Ishmael also came to Esther when he was having really bad dreams and headaches and Ishmael would tell her about her dreams and she would just listen and wouldnt make a comment about them unless Ishmael would tell her he wanted her to. Eventually it even got to a point where Ishmael really looked forward to his visits with Esther. Esther was the closest thing Ishmael had to family, Ishmael told Esther that he didnt feel like he had anything left to live for because he had no family left, Esther replied “Think of me as