Ishmael Beah Imagery
As an SHS senior, incoming students should keep discussing and learning about Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum. The author displays vivid imagery to aid students in visualizing what happens beyond the text and the impact it has on the students that read the memoir. Beah’s memoir reveals intense imagery for students to gain full knowledge on Beah’s history. For instance, Beah struggles to face decisions he has to make while surviving in the villages of Sierra Leone: “Along the spring there were several trees with ripe fruit that I had never seen. I decided to try some of it, since it was the only edible thing around. It was either take the chance and eat this fruit that might poison
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Beahs experiences things no child should ever have to experience: “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed… My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen”(126). With losing his own family, Beahs tries adjusting to his new soldier friends and bonds with them. Also, his weapons can mean life or death. However, his rough childhood made Beah grow into a person who can accept change. In addition, Beah changes physically and emotionally, he is now a killer and cannot control his state of mind: “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man’s head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out”(125). Here, the author illustrates that a person can change within a matter of time. This part of the memoir can have a huge impact on students because of how gruesome one human can be. All in all, students will receive many different messages from Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone but the curriculum has vivid imagery to get the point across to readers. Undoubtedly, English IV department should keep on teaching students the meaning beyond of Beah’s touching
Beahs experiences things no child should ever have to experience: “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed… My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen”(126). With losing his own family, Beahs tries adjusting to his new soldier friends and bonds with them. Also, his weapons can mean life or death. However, his rough childhood made Beah grow into a person who can accept change. In addition, Beah changes physically and emotionally, he is now a killer and cannot control his state of mind: “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man’s head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out”(125). Here, the author illustrates that a person can change within a matter of time. This part of the memoir can have a huge impact on students because of how gruesome one human can be. All in all, students will receive many different messages from Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone but the curriculum has vivid imagery to get the point across to readers. Undoubtedly, English IV department should keep on teaching students the meaning beyond of Beah’s touching