A Long Way Gone Language Analysis

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Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling high school English IV curriculum because Beah makes use of the complexity of ideas and creates connections to the real world. Markedly, the use of the complexity of ideas makes the memoir well rounded, and better reading material than many other pieces. Accordingly, after Beah and his friends leave the first village after seeing it destroyed, they run into one problem: food. They begin to starve and Beah’s simile represents their hunger: “We became irritable and sat apart from each other, as if sitting together made us hungrier” (30). Uniquely, Beah’s use of simile and other figurative language throughout his story can cause the reader to visualize what Beah and his friends …show more content…
Furthermore, Beah personifies peoples detest towards other upon the birds, stating: “I felt as if the birds gave me angry looks for eating so much of their food: (52). Significantly, Beah’s personification connects how people react to an outsider or someone they don’t trust. This connection to the real world teaches the reader how they should recognize someone who is different and should welcome them. As a result, this memoir is adequate for English IV curriculum because the of the lesson’s taught to the reader throughout the story. Similarly, Beah references how many people feel when on their path through life as “One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end” (69). To demonstrate connections to the real world, Beah references how he has lost faith in when he will find a place to settle down and this connects to how many people in the real world feel as they go through school, being told that they should decide what they’re doing in life. This is adequate for an English IV curriculum because many students in this course are in the process of figuring out where they should go and fit in life. To emphasize, the memoir A Long Way Gone is adequate for an English IV curriculum based on its standards of vocabulary, connections to the real world, and many other aspects that can be associated with generating well-rounded students taking this

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