Book Report On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Improved Essays
In “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael Beah wrote about the extraordinary events and struggles that happened in Sierra Leone. These events are similar to the events in Burundi, because in Burundi children are living on the streets and are being abused (Jessica H., pg.1). In the book “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael’s city of living gets attacked by rebels and tons of people died, while he tried running away from the war it was in almost every city he went to. In the middle of the book, Ishmael’s brother, mother, and father all died from the attacks. The majority of Ishmael’s friends survived the war. Ishmael impacted the Sierra Leone population by going to New York and talking to some businessmen about the issues and America worked hard to stop the rebels.

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Although their struggle to get food for survival led them to attack young children to get food. After Ishmael lost his family and some of his friends he was recruited to the army to fight against the rebels who killed his family. Soon the people in the army become almost like a family to him and he is driven by revenge to kill…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He once trembled with a gun in his hand, then he had no problem shooting one (120). Fighting in war had greatly altered Ishmael’s attitude because he became very aggressive, and also depended on drugs heavily (139). Another event that had impacted Ishmael’s development is when he was finally released from the rehabilitation center to live with his uncle and his family. He slowly got used to being around people who were happy all of the time and that helped him to fully return to a normal society during his time (182). After losing his mom, dad, and brothers, living with his newly discovered uncle, aunt, and other relatives had made Ishmael feel glad to have a real family again.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    11/25 I stopped my reading for one day to relax my mind; I was unconsciously effected by the war Ishmael was in. I detested the rebel who killed his family, friends, and country. The war between the government and the rebels ruined the citizens peaceful lives. Families were separated, and children were brought to fright against their friend in different sides. Most children who became a soldier were either killed others or be killed by others, for most of them turned to be indifference, addicted with drugs, and killed more people for the joy of violence; Ishmael was one of them.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the war in Sierra Leone, both Ishmael Beah and Mariatu Kamara experienced the war personally, giving first-hand accounts of all the incidents, however, Beah emphasized more on how the war affected the society and the entire country, while Kamara only described how the war had an effect on her life rather than the society as a whole. In A Long Way Gone, Beah emphasizes the chaos and destruction that the war brought upon not just his village but the entire society, in people's behaviours and their trust upon each other. “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).…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In an interview, author of A Long Way Gone and former child soldier Ishmael Beah said “Everyone is capable of going beyond their own humanity and doing certain things that are not humane” (Beah). In A Long Way Gone the events that occur in young Beah’s life force him to commit acts that many believe they never could do no matter the circumstance. Beah believes that in a certain situation anyone can be forced into making choices that may look like a lack of humanity. He says that “People if they have been touched by war or conflicts that make them be a part of, participate in committing atrocities would be victims of it” and that “this is also part of human nature if you’re in that circumstance you would act that way as well so it’s not just specific, particular to who live in Africa or people who live in Asia who do these things” (Beah).…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ishmael and Mambu, his friend, find a way of selling the given school supplies and hopping on a bus to Freetown. “we laughed and clapped for the dancers” (Beah 146). They had fun, they had un violence influenced fun, something that is not just healthy but that influences them in a way that lets them know that there is a way out, or something other than the war to occupy their minds. When Ishmael and Mambu return to the Benin Home, they tell all the others about what they had experienced and seen. All the boys wish to go and see the city, so they sell school supplies to get money to go.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Long Way Gone Community

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Community War often changes the way people see the world if they do not have a strong community. In the novel, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael starts off his life vigorously due to him having a strong community. However, as time goes by his life begins to become consumed by the ever raging war going on around him. He later starts to separate from his family due to the war and is then transformed into a solider for the military. Beah uses his life story to convey the theme community has a great effect on a person’s life.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ishmael saw two of his childhood friends get killed during his first battle of the war. He describes seeing a seven year old named Josiah who shared a tent with him get launched and killed from an explosion and his friend Musa whom he had known from school get shot in the head (Beah 118-119). At only twelve years old Ishmael saw his closest friends get killed in battle. Ishmael being forced to fight and kill when he was only twelve years old was a terrible tragedy of the war and a further victimization of him, not something that reversed or undid his status as a victim. Both authors experienced unimaginable trauma and Ishmael’s victimhood cannot be negated as he had no choice but to fight in the war and partake in the…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ishmael is a victim from the R.U.F because they would drug him and he would not be able to make any reasonable decisions; he was also a victimizer because even though he did not know what was going on, he was still killing people and eventually got used to it.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Long Way Gone

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the novel A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, we are given a glimpse into the life of a child that is trying to make his way in life during a time of war. While Beah does lose his family, home and childhood, he also loses his sense of safety and belonging. During the war, people from different villages continue to flee from the rebels that are constantly conquering villages, slaughtering the villagers like cattle. As the villages are broken down and conquered, boys are taken from their families and are enlisted into the war by both the rebel forces and the army. These boys are then brainwashed and transformed into tools of destruction as they fight alongside the men that seek to kill the opposing force.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Two different things that can seem completely different, sometimes can end up being the same. With people, there can be a boy and girl. One will brown hair, and one with blonde. One will blue eyes, and one with green. One will a high-pitched southern accent, and one with a low monotone british accent.…

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Long Way Gone Essay

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Even though Sierra Leone is more than 9,100 km away from Somalia, the two countries face similar problems of poverty and civil warfare brought on by severely limited natural resources, dramatically low wages, and environmental hardship. Throughout the arid continent, there is a sinister demand for child soldiers as they are recruited by groups which both take part in the raiding of peaceful civilizations with families. As Ishmael Beah described in his memoir A Long Way Gone, the unavoidable choice given to a great number of African children is to either kill and take or forfeit what you have and perish. However, Beah also states with assurance, “ . . . children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book ''Inside out and Back Again'' by Thanhha Lai, relates to the universal experience of fleeing and finding a home. Many refugees, including the character Ha from the book ''Inside Out and Back Again'', go through a lot of sadness and worries because of war, or any reason for fleeing. '' Inside Out'' which is the first half of the title, means a turn of events in someone's life, or something bad is awaiting. ''Back Again'' the second half of the title, shows how someone or in Ha's case, her family can get their lives partially normal, or how it was before. It is never easy for a refugee to flee, let alone find a new home, and get their life on track, we see this, especially through Ha's experience.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ishmael Prejudice Quotes

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages

    At first, Ishmael who is the main character, was a happy child living a normal life among his family in Sierra Leone. However, during the civil war with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), his family got murdered, and he had no other choice than becoming a child soldier addicted to drugs and capable of terrible acts of violence. Throughout the book, the categorization process appears clearly and lead to different type of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. In fact, at the beginning of the book, Ismael is not a soldier; he is just a lost child wandering the forest from villages to villages in order to survive.…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Sierra Leonean Civil War from 1991 to 2001 affected every citizen of Sierra Leone, including children. Ishmael Beah is a man who was caught in the war as a child, and forced to both witness and commit acts of violence as a child soldier, as expressed in his memoir. The role of violence in the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is to portray the theme of loss of innocence through the comparisons and contrasts of violent acts while Ishmael was running from the rebels, during his time as a child soldier, and after his experience in the Sierra Leonean army. The role of violence is first shown through the comparison of Ishmael as he is running from the rebels to the families who are trying to escape the war and stopping in the mining area…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays