I’m not the kind to read sad stories about someones life. I praise Ishmael Beah‚ the author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy solider. He put the unthinkable into words that were carefully crafted in order to make them perfectly flow from the text‚ to my head. The boy who was between the ages of 12 & 16 at the time‚ lost everything he thought would be his forever. His village was attacked by a notorious group‚ his parents were killed and his childhood was stolen from him. At his age‚ he never
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In the novel‚ A Long Way Gone‚ a young boy by the name of Ishmael is forced to become a soldier at a very young age. He becomes involved in drugs and violence‚ stripping him of his innocence. Towards the end of the story‚ he is turned over to UNICEF and put into a rehabilitation center to recover from the horrors he had experienced. This relates to human trafficking; both issues involve children’s innocence being taken from them at a young age. Both groups deal with violence‚ tragedy‚ and drug use
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killed Speer and wounded others”(pg1) This is one example of horrible crimes because not only did he kill one person but he wounded others. This situation then escalated into a full on fire fight. Another example of this is from the story written by Ishmael Beah‚ A long Way Gone‚ it states‚” ‘We burned about three
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would sell her to a man to rape her. That’s just awful! I’m so happy that she was able to get away and now living without having to worry about having to do that again. As a teen in a war-ravaged country Sierra Leone‚ Ishmael Beah was brainwashed‚ drugged and forced to kill. Ishmaels family was killed in the Sierra civil war from 1991-2002. During this period after Ishmael’s
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from the past” (20). This quote is important because Ishmael Beah is still haunted by nightmares of his time fighting the war. I chose this because it is important to know that his new life is unfamiliar to him. “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything. We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics‚ which was what it came down to” (29). This quote is important because Beah knows that the rebels have forced him and others to resort
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from living normal lives because they have been brainwashed to kill; this is how it stops them from living normal lives. Furthermore‚ Beah Ishmael also states in his article "The Making‚ and Unmaking‚ of a Child Soldier‚" in northern Uganda‚ nearly 30 percent of girls and 50 percent of boys have post traumatic stress. Unfortunately‚ many of them become suicidal (Ishmael). These statistics illustrate a large percent of child soldiers suffering from PTSD‚ which ultimately lead to depression‚ anxiety‚
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Gone “A Long Way Gone”‚ a memoir about a Sierra Leonean young boy who is a “child of war” has many themes in the novel but what is the most important? Relationship‚ I believe that this is the most important theme because without relationship‚ Ishmeal Beah‚ the author of “A long Way Gone” and a human rights activist would not have survived nor would he have recuperated from the war in Sierra Leone. Relationship with the lieutenant‚ Ishmeal looked up to his lieutenant as a father figure. Ishmeal would
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A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah was one of the most shocking books I have ever read. I knew that there were many problems and civil wars occurring within Africa‚ but I never realized how much war truly affected the country and its culture. This is not a typical war that we envision here in the United States‚ this is a dismantling of a country’s way of life. Beah’s story gives detailed accounts of things that seem unimaginable in today’s world. The fact that governments around the world had an
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As Ishmael explained all that he had gone through in his journey of being a child soldier to being free‚ he uses diction in his writing to make the story easier to understand. A lot of times many writers use different types of diction so that the writing has a clearer meaning to the reader. In this memoir‚ Ishmael was able to use different types of diction for the reader to be able to understand the importance of scenes while in the war. “I stood there holding my gun and felt special because I was
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Sierra Leone Background The Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (RUF/SL) invaded Sierra Leone from Liberia in March 1991. Initially they claimed to be a political movement supporting ‘liberation’ and ‘democracy. Instead the RUF‚ in reality‚ was an insecurely combined organization of mainly rebellious young people that inflicted mortal disaster throughout the country of Sierra Leone. The political revolution message failed to attract popular support‚ the RUF board on a barbarian ten-year
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