When choosing whether or not to include a specific text in the curriculum, an English teacher must consider many things to determine the story’s relevance, such as the content of the story and universal themes. Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because of its use of complex ideas and universal themes that make this text a worthy champion for the curriculum.
Beah’s extensive and sophisticated figurative language appeal to the reader and forces him to think beyond literal representation and think about the deeper meaning. For instance, Beah’s imagery portrays the state of chaos that Sierra Leone is in when Beah passes through an abandoned village that he encounters “I had passed …show more content…
Their eyes still showed fear, as if death hadn’t freed them from the madness that continued to unfold” (49). With this imagery, the reader can identify that Sierra Leone is in a complete and utter state of madness. Not even the dead can escape the sheer chaos and war that has consumed and engulfed the entire nation. Beah wants his readers to think bigger than what the words literally say. Obviously the reader can also infer that the entire nation experiences the same thing and that being dead will not be a means of an escape from that chaos. Similarly, Beah’s ambiguity throughout the whole story makes it both captivating and open to various forms of interpretation. The most notable example of ambiguity in A Long Way Gone is when Beah sheds his persona as a civilian/victim and acquires a new one as a child soldier: “As I was putting on my new army shorts, a soldier took my old pants and threw them into a blazing fire that had been set to burn our old belongings. I ran towards the fire, but the cassettes had already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away” (110). Here, Beah leaves a lot to be interpreted with this symbolism. With the burning
Beah’s extensive and sophisticated figurative language appeal to the reader and forces him to think beyond literal representation and think about the deeper meaning. For instance, Beah’s imagery portrays the state of chaos that Sierra Leone is in when Beah passes through an abandoned village that he encounters “I had passed …show more content…
Their eyes still showed fear, as if death hadn’t freed them from the madness that continued to unfold” (49). With this imagery, the reader can identify that Sierra Leone is in a complete and utter state of madness. Not even the dead can escape the sheer chaos and war that has consumed and engulfed the entire nation. Beah wants his readers to think bigger than what the words literally say. Obviously the reader can also infer that the entire nation experiences the same thing and that being dead will not be a means of an escape from that chaos. Similarly, Beah’s ambiguity throughout the whole story makes it both captivating and open to various forms of interpretation. The most notable example of ambiguity in A Long Way Gone is when Beah sheds his persona as a civilian/victim and acquires a new one as a child soldier: “As I was putting on my new army shorts, a soldier took my old pants and threw them into a blazing fire that had been set to burn our old belongings. I ran towards the fire, but the cassettes had already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away” (110). Here, Beah leaves a lot to be interpreted with this symbolism. With the burning