A Long Way Gone Essay
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Mississippi College *
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5413
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Arts Humanities
Date
Nov 24, 2024
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9
Uploaded by MegaHeron3922
Long Way Gone
War is a devastating event which tears nations apart, and causes death and pain in the hearts of the
inhabitants. Whether it is the countries strong males being sent off into the battle zones, or the young
children, war scars people. Soldiers are dehumanized, and lose all morals and sense of right and
wrong. In the book Long Way Gone, Ishmael and his friends are dehumanized through the war
because of the traumatic events they endure, and their time spent in solitude away from civilization;
luckily, they were able to regain humanity through the love and hope provided from others.
Throughout the novel, Ishmael and his friends begin to those their humanity and become completely
different individuals because of their exposure to the war. The
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All trust was lost between citizens. Ishmael could not be seen as anything but a soldier, he became
very lonely. The war took away the happiness and overall family like atmosphere of Ishmael along
with his country of Sierra Leone. Although war took away most of Ishmael and his friends'
childhoods, turning them into savage murderers with no regard for anything but their own survival,
they were provided with a rare chance to regain their humanity. Once out of the war, the young
children were transported to a rehabilitation center run by UNICEF. There, they were surrounded
with complete strangers who for some reason unapparent to them, cared deeply for the children,
presenting them with an endless supply of love and understanding of their situation. They were
constantly reminded of their innocence, being told "This isn't your fault, you know. It really isn't.
You'll get through this" (Beah 151). Even through all the hardships Ishmael and his friends caused at
the center, they were not blamed for any of their actions, and each time were cared for with more
compassion than the last. The workers at the facility understood their losses and tried to fill in for
them. They tried to be the children's new family. "Think of me as your family, your sister" (Beah
167) as said by a nurse to Ishmael. Ishmael was provided with a support system to help him get
through his hard times, and be reshaped into
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A Long Way Gone Analysis
Ishmael Beah's journey in "A Long Way Gone" is one filled with painful lessons and experiences
that confronts difficult the difficult issues of death and humanity. Beah's life story reflects the
disheartening truth about the cruelty all humans are capable of when they are neglected by the rest
of the world. From an innocent childhood in Mogbwemo to a numb, violent life as a child soldier
and the final recovery in America, he transitions through living lives of rampage and destruction,
followed by one of kindness and compassion. In the novel, there are three major events that impact
Ishmael's life both negatively and positively, but always permanently. The first major event in his
life is when he becomes separated from his parents. Years later he is taken by the military, and
finally he meets a kind nurse that helps him through recovery. At the mere age of twelve, Ishmael
Beah's village of Mogbwemo is attacked by an armed and dangerous rebel group that is willing to
mercilessly slaughter anybody in sight. The villagers flee in fear of their lives and many, including
Ishmael, become separated from their families. It is unknown what exactly happened to Ishmael's
family, but he never sees them again after barely escaping the rebels with his brother and friends.
The separation from his beloved family haunts him for the rest of his life. Their unknown fates is
what is the most difficult for him, because he does not know if they are still alive or suffered a
traumatic death.
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Essay On A Long Way Gone
A long way gone
What do you know now that you didn't know before?
I didn't know some armies or militaries get kids to fight for them and if they are orphans they make
them believe that every single rebel they fight make it seem like those are the rebels that killed their
family members or parents,which is bad considering that there are adults willing to fight and they
pick sad mournful kids to take their battles to enrage them to make them fight.I didn't know that
some people can talk about the death of parents without getting sentimental about it some people
don't share about it or write a book about it at all I wouldn't grief about it but I wouldn't talk about
and probably see a therapist if it get worse but since he didn't have anybody
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g the struggles of life, especially since he was the person going through this but he saying life isn't
easy no matter what age you are but you have keep it moving put things in your past and move
on.He also explains what war is like at a young age how everything gruesome and bloody and also
how it is ground feeling for regret and guilt and the guilt and regret he is feeling Is that he feels that
he is responsible for everything that has happened to him in his life.The book is saying that you will
become smarter and stronger through the difficult times finding out you are going to lied to cheat on
and also lose someone you love but you it's saying you will make it through the pain and
suffering.What rights are being abused and violated in the book and how would you respond to these
rights?A example of rights being abused is when the lieutenant gets child soldiers they don't make
them forget or comfort them on their parents death the make them mourn the death of their parents
to make them show their rage to make them fight.And they are pretty much brainwashed because
during battle all of the boys yell about they killed their parents and family.The boy soldiers were
brainwashed into thinking that killing and seeking revenge is the best thing they can do in their lives
no matter what and it is forcing them to take drugs so that he can forget about the past and making
them scared and have really bad nightmares what this is doing it is making them unstable and very
unpredictable
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A Long Way Gone
A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah had a really tough life throughout his childhood and teenage years.
In his literary work, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah uses symbols to
underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom. The three symbols he used to underscore
his central theme of oppression and freedom was Ishmael's AK–47, his cassette tapes, and the drugs
he used. Ishmael's AK–47 was the most important symbol that Ishmael Beah used to underscore his
central theme. At the beginning of A Long Way Gone Ishmael was terrified of guns. He didn't want
anything to do with them. But once he started in the war against the rebels, guns were there to
comfort him. He didn't want to leave his
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(Beah 15) The rap cassettes made him connect with his friends and family because they would all
dance and sing to them. Ishmael would resort to music when he just wanted to think or even just
relax. He would find security with his cassette tapes. When his cassette tapes were demolished he
had finally lost control of himself. "A soldier took my old pants and threw them a blazing fire
....
I
ran toward the fire, but the cassettes had already started to melt" (Beah 110). That was when he
finally had completed his change to a whole different person. "Memorizing lyrics left me little time
to think about what had happened in the war." (Beah, 163). Ishmael Beah's rap cassette tapes had a
huge impact on his life and how he acted. Without them he was no longer himself, but a monster.
The final thing that encapsulated Ishmael Beah that was a symbol in A Long Way Gone was drugs,
which particularly were marijuana and cocaine. Drugs had change Ishmael into something he didn't
want to be. Once he started on drugs he craved them more and more until he would finally do
anything and everything to get them. Drugs made him want to kill others. They would go on huge
raids and kill all the rebels just to get some more drugs. "Sometimes we were asked to leave for war
in the middle of a movie. We would come back hours later after killing many people and continue
the movie as if we
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A Long Way Gone Essay
Big War, Bigger People War is and can be defined as both a state of emergency and the liberator to a
world so corrupt and unjust. The war in Sierra Leone separated families and ruined lives. How can a
fight for a cause so right be so wrong. The Books "The Bite of the Mango" and "A Long Way Gone"
compare and contrast Ishmael Beah's experience to Mariatu Kamaras'. Both books are very different
yet very similar. In The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone both characters lose their
childhood because of the war, but go through different journeys based solely on their gender. Loss of
innocence is a constant theme throughout both A Long Way Gone and The Bite of the Mango. Both
Beah and Kamara have to leave everything behind in their old lives and start a new journey. They
both learn to adapt to live in a war for a short period, even if it means leaving behind their childhood
memories and life. "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."( Beah 29) Beah shows the amount of inexperience and innocence still within him as the
war begins. No clue as to what war could possibly be like, he expresses vulnerability and innocence
as if he were a puppy in a world of wolfs. War quickly destroyed Beah's and Kamara's innocence.
Both of them saw people with their own eyes get brutally killed. They both saw innocent people
including their own relatives and kids fall
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Men are always last, women and children always go first. But in a war so brutal even the youngest
of boys are treated as adults and feared like criminals. The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone
show exactly how men and women endure a distinct type of pain throughout this war. Being a boy
means a lot to the rebels. They can use you to fight their war, ignite fear into people's life and
destroy as they
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