First-world children spend summer days playing with friends or vacationing with their families. But only an ocean away‚ children as young as ten are forced to kill each other as brainwashed soldiers in morally reprehensible political conflicts. “A Long Way Gone” is Ishmael Beah’s account of his life as a child soldier in the ongoing Somali Civil War. In it‚ he uses simple language and graphic details to provoke strong emotions in the reader‚ and hopefully move them to action. His story is one fraught
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The impact of war can be hard. Ishmael in the story A long way gone by is forced to be a child soldier because of the death of his family. Ishmael in this story goes to lots of challenges the biggest one is keeping his own life. He also faces a lot of death in the book. Some being the deaths of his friends and his family but also when he was a child soldier he saw people next to him die and the people on the opposing side which is the rebels as well. This story does a good job of giving a good
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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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the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah‚ this is not the case. In the beginning it starts off with Ishmael as an innocent child who loves rap music‚ but it all get destroyed in the blink of an eye. War and innocence are two things that should never mix‚ but in A Long Way Gone they mix beyond separation. So many children from Sierra Leone got caught up in the war‚ and were forced to do things that even grown men shouldn’t have to do. They were forced to kill people in inhumane ways and do drugs
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close my eyes and wait for death . . . Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you." The boys sadly bury their friend‚ but are optimistic about the future and seeing their parents. They meet a man who informs them that their parents are just over a hill‚ but when they reach the top they see nothing but fire raging throughout the village. Gunshots and screams
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“An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experiences” - (James Baldwin). One’s identity can be shaped by many things including people and experiences. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah‚ Ishmael’s identity was also shaped by the people around him and his experiences. Ishmael lost his family and was forced to become a ruthless killer at a young age. He was also forced to leave the country he loved because he was too afraid to rejoin the fight. In
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been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma.” (Shah) Even though many do not believe in luck‚ or consider it to be occasional‚ Ishmael Beah‚ author and main character of A Long Way Gone‚ demonstrates how luck can be a part of someone’s daily life. Life for a child soldier‚ can be overwhelming‚ full of risks and dangers‚ and even a living hell. In most cases‚ these children die‚ end up as orphans‚ or simply live the rest of their
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In the book‚ A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier written by Ishmael Beah. This autobiographical story tells a story about him and how he grew up in Sierra Leone during the country’s civil war. Sierra Leone descended into a brutal and chaotic civil war between Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and corrupt Action Peoples Congress (APC). The conflict lasted most of the 1990s and‚ in common with the civil war in Liberia‚ became intimately linked with the use of child soldiers. Sierra
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Eddie Salcedo Mr. Stone December 5‚ 2012 7th period A Long Way Until The End of This Essay The author of A Long Way Gone argues against boy soldiers but also against the loss of innocence. Beah’s parents are burned alive by the rebels; this is the first step towards his animosity towards them. In his story he talks about snorting brown brown‚ shooting men and how he was slowly corrupted by the men around him‚ turning him into a machine. It tells the story of a world as horrendous as any
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In the book‚ “A Long Way Gone‚” Ishmael went through many violent experience. It taught me about the consequences or aftereffect‚ both intended and unintended of violence is by telling us lessons of it. One of his violence is when it started the rebel attacking the village‚ which then his family is dead. And that makes him want to revenge for his family. Later he join an army because he was told that it is a death road or have hope of living if he join the army. Of course he wants to live‚ so he
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