Preview

A Long Way Gone Book Report

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1042 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Long Way Gone Book Report
A Long Way Gone

Survival is a skill everyone’s born with but not many have to test it. In the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, he travels across the Sierra Leone bush to get away from the Revolutionary United Front(RUF) that is attacking his home village. Melissa Fay Greene from the Elle Magazine writes, “No outsider could have written this book, and it’s hard to imagine that many insiders could do so with such acute vision, stark language, and tenderness. It is a heartrending achievement.” This really sums up the feeling of the memoir, it tells a true story of how hard it is to stay alive. Ishmael Beah strives to keep his companions and family safe even if he has to do the things he disrespects. In the novel, the author purports …show more content…
He didn’t exactly change them he just made my beliefs seem more true. The memoir made me realize how fortunate the United States is to not be in constant war and that our country doesn’t have to flee from villages to escape rebels. In Sierra Leone, Ishmael didn’t know what he was going to eat yet or if he could even find food. He made me change my beliefs about addiction a lot. Seeing how little people have made me melancholy. When Ishmael describes his escape and leaving the city in the beginning of the book it sounds like pure terror. They have to hide in the tall grass and be still because if the rebels saw them they would get shot. Beah caused me to change my belief on how difficult living in total war and remote parts of the world would be. He describes, “My eyes widened, a smile forming on my face. Even in the middle of the madness there remained that true and natural beauty, and it took my mind away from my current situation as I marveled at this sight”(Beah, Ishmael 59). In this moment, it is the first time the boys have ever seen the ocean, and the sheer glance at it before going back to war amazes
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah
    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

    In the memoir A Long Way Gone, the author, Ishmael Beah, relates his story to the title. On page 65, the author says: “We were a long way from Mattru Jong. A long way gone.” The title, A Long Way Gone, gives the reader a glimpse of how far Ishmael is away from Mattru Jong, his life before being a soldier, and how distant he is with himself.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ishmael Beah A Long Way Gone Analysis
    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ishmael Beah A Long Way Gone Analysis

    A long way gone by Ishmael Beah is a story about his experiences as a child soldier in a civil war in Sierra Leone. He vividly showcases his life during the war by writing about his memories and his emotions in those particular situations. By displaying such scenarios, Beah indirectly explains his audience and purpose of his writing.…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Gruesome Storytelling In 'A Long Way Gone'
    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Gruesome Storytelling In 'A Long Way Gone'

    While he and his friends are away for a talent show, their village is raided by rebels. The gruesome storytelling in A Long Way Gone is striking for many reasons on several levels. At one point Ishmael writes, “We are not like the rebels, those riffraff who kill people for no reason.” The narrative takes an unexpected turn by closing with Beah recalling a philosophical moment from his early childhood. In the final pages of the novel, Beah explains a story told to him and other children in his village once a year: you are a hunter prepared to kill a monkey with a rifle; before you shoot, the monkey tells you that if you kill him, your mother will die and if you don’t, your father will. None of the children ever reveal their own answer to what…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    War Destroys Trust: a Long Way Gone
    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    War Destroys Trust: a Long Way Gone

    In the book Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah struggles between trust and survival in the midst of a gruesome war. He laments how, “the war had destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people” throughout the book there are many examples of this upsetting truth. The consequences of this mistrust in people are clear as he travels through Sierra Leon while being incessantly threatened and assumed a member of the RUF. Most of this book is about the ongoing struggle within Ishmael between trying to stay alive and deciding who to trust. The phenomena of war and trust can coexist only if you have an ability to differentiate your friends from enemies. Ishmael struggles throughout the book to stay alive, and thus decides to trust no one, but this could be detrimental to his survival.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Long Way Gone Theme
    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Long Way Gone Theme

    In Ishmael Beah's autobiographical narrative "A Long Way Gone", the theme of the story is to never give up, because throughout the book the main character faces numerous difficult situations, and manages to overcome them. First, Beah's responses towards certain problems show the reader his will to survive. For instance, when Ishmael and his friends are all alone after escaping from rebels, he states, "we had no idea where we would go or even how to get to a safe place, but we were determined to find one" (Beah 36). We see how he is driven to find a way to safety even in the midst of a war. Second, we see the theme in action when Beah “feels as if he is always waiting for death to come…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ishmael Beah's Innocence
    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page

    Ishmael Beah's Innocence

    As a child soldier, Ishmael was brainwashed with the use of drugs to kill countless of people to avenge the death of his family. When most boys his age should have been…

    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ishmael Beah
    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ishmael Beah

    For example, we see on page 100 that Beah is sick just looking at dead bodies, “One of them lay on his stomach, and his eyes were wide open and still; his insides were spilling onto the ground. I turned away, and my eyes caught the smashed head of another man. Something inside his brain was still pulsating and he was breathing. I felt nauseated. Everything began to spin around me.” (12.100) Any normal boy who still has his innocence and fun left would obviously feel remorse for this man and start to feel lightheaded. A couple sentences later, the soldier says to Ishmael that he would soon get used to it, which foreshadows upcoming events where he becomes a child soldier. We see only 22 pages later that Ishmael has lost all of the innocence he had and becomes unremorseful, “So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn’t feel better. After every gunfight we would enter the rebel camp, killing those we had wounded”. (14.122) We see here that Ishmael is no longer that normal boy who likes to listen to rap cassettes and recite Shakespeare. He has grown into a full grown killer who hates all rebels with passion. Beah also supports this theme in the story because this is where we see that he has stopped putting in flashbacks to his childhood because he has lost everything, even his…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Long Way Gone: Review
    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A Long Way Gone: Review

    In A long way gone, by Ishmael Beah the main character ishmael struggles to good in a society that demands evil. As ishamel feels he is doing good, the lines of good and evil become extreamly blured. During Ishmael first battle, he fought angirly to avenge the dead that the R.U.F killing mercelsey as it shows in text “Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my lifeless friend, I angirly pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people”(119). Later in the text ishmael is no longer guided by revenge nor fairness. He starts to kill without any concious what so ever, as shown when ishmael Is not protected, and is willing to protect himself by standing up for his country and fighting for rights. “ Killing those they had already severly wonded”(122). In this quote it shows how ishmael is doing extra work and taking his anger out on his enemies,that where doing harsh actions to ishmaels people. As ismael becomes a full cold blooded solider he seemingly forgets the reasons he fought for the R.U.F after U.N.I.C.E.F takes ishmael and some of his comrades, they begin to hate the thing they fought for. In the text: “They have lost every that makes them human. They dont deserve to live, that is why we must kill every single on of them”(108). To anaylze this quote, ishmael points out that the rebels dont deserve to live due to what the rebels where doing to innocent people. According to ishmael he wants to kill all of them for all of the things they where doing to his people, and show them that he has…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Long Way Gone Themes
    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Long Way Gone Themes

    His use of the motifs of loss and survival especially help convey the theme. At various times throughout A Long Way Gone, Ishmael loses the people that matter most to him. He loses his parents when their village is attacked, his brother and friends due to the chaos of the war, he loses his second group of friends when he becomes a soldier, and countless other times he loses something that matters to him.The quote “I went behind the house and punched the mango tree until Mohamed took me away from it. I was always losing everything that meant something to me.” perfectly exemplifies this motif shortly before the end of the book. He loses these important pieces of his life, all due to the war. Prior to the war, he was naive to being alone, and not having someone with him, as such, the motif of loss conveys that he has lost innocence with his many other losses. Also present throughout the book, is the motif of survival. This first really crops up when he says “That night we were so hungry that we stole people’s food while they slept. It was the only way to get through the night.”. The theme is also shown to be present when Ishmael joins the army, as he is told by the leaders in the city that if he does not join the army, he will likely die. Both of these examples convey that Ishmael has to do whatever he has to to continue living. As he does whatever is needed, he does things that he would not have done while…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Long Way Gone Theme Essay
    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A Long Way Gone Theme Essay

    The theme Loss of Innocence was illustrated in the memoir. Evidently, as Ishmael Beah became a child soldier, his story would present a loss of innocence. The hardships and violence of war had been given in the perspective of a child, as Beah describes his experiences simply and without judgement. The Rebel attacks on his village and neighboring villages may have traumatized Beah but however, not have caused him to lose his innocence. He maintains it by pondering over old childhood memories and his ability to rekindle his sense of wonder. For example, Beah and his friends celebrate when they see the ocean. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah on page 59 it states “My eyes widened, a smile forming on my face. Even in the middle of the madness…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier
    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier

    Ishmael Beah tells of a county, Serra Leone, torn apart by a civil war. He describes the injustices done upon his people that has been ignored for too long. In his book a long way gone, Ishmael describes the innocence of his youth, the slaughtering of the innocent and his simple will to survive and come back for the atrocities committed to him and by him. In the beginning of the book you read that Ishmael and his friends taught themselves to rap and dance through American television. They were traveling to another village to attend a talent show unaware a war broke out and was almost at their doorsteps. Throughout the book you see the theme of music and how important it was for Ishmael. Music was used for storytelling in his youth, survival after the war broke out and a rehabilitation tool after UNICEF recovered him.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On A Long Way Gone
    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On A Long Way Gone

    A Long Way Gone is the story of a man who was formerly a child soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war. The civil war lasted from March 23, 1991 until January 18, 2002. This civil war tore families in Sierra Leone apart, and A Long Way Gone is an amazing representation of what it was like to be there during this time.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Long Way Gone Potential Essay Topics
    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page

    A Long Way Gone Potential Essay Topics

    1. Childhood and adolescence- how is it represented in the memoir? Innocence and wonder and/or tribulation and terror?…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of The Sierra Leone Civil War
    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis Of The Sierra Leone Civil War

    I can see many reasons why the author wrote this memoir. First off, he wanted to talk about what he had to go through during the Sierra Leone Civil War. He wanted to show the disturbing sides to what war really does. The rebels of the war did some horrible things in this war. They destroyed many villages in the country. This was including Ishmael’s villages, which caused the death of his entire family. Even the government did horrible things to fight against the rebels. They recruited boys to their army, such as Ishmael and his friends. The army trained them to become killing machines, and they brainwashed the boys into thinking they were doing a good thing killing all the rebels. The loss of innocence was another thing why he wrote this book.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Long Way Gone Essay
    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Long Way Gone Essay

    The war that changed everyone’s life in Sierra Leone took everything from everyone; It stripped down people to nothing. The rebels took families, killed them, took all their belongings, took the children and made them drug addict killers. Unfortunately, Ishmael Beah was subject to it all. While reading A Long Way Gone, Beah clearly shows the gradual slipping of his childhood. He reflects on a memory of himself realizing how different was from before the war started when he says, “One evening we actually chased a little boy who was eating two boiled ears of corn himself” (30). The loss of being innocent started off when the boys got really hungry. The war had kicked them into the woods to fend for themselves, and they had no choice but to start doing bad things for food. Like chasing that little boy and stealing his corn. They slowly became savages, but couldn't help themselves. They had to become thieves and also try to justify what they were doing by telling themselves that it was…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More