A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, here are only a few countries in which children are used to fight and endure war up close. Throughout history and many cultures children have been used for direct part ( actual soldiers), support roles (spies and messengers), and even political advantages ( human shields and propaganda). This is the cruel reality that these children face everyday. During their time in an environment like this the children are indoctrinated by many different tactics. In A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of a Boy Soldiers by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael describe the use of drugs, violent movies, the use of vengance and the label of “winner” in competitions of killing quickest to fuel their minds to become killers. These categories of tactics…

physiological defects, and are are sometimes tried as war criminals, more awareness and money must be dedicated towards stopping child soldiers from being used in war. These two words child and soldier…

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is a narrative of survival of a 12-year-old boy separated from his family and caught in the mess of the Sierra Leone civil war in the early 1990s. His story reveals his traumatizing and shocking experiences as a soldier driven by anger and revenge for the loss of his village and his culture, only later able to overcome everything that had happened and the things he’d done. Ishmael’s cultural connection to storytelling was ultimately what…

events like a war, especially if they are involved in it, can change their mentality . An amazing memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier shows how different people impact and help Beah to survive . Beah was a typical young boy who likes listening to the rap music and…

A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) by Ishmael Beah was not very appealing at first, but I eventually fell for it. I thought of choosing King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild but I thought my fiction book was somewhat similar to it, thus, I wanted to opt for something different. When I first read the summary of A Long Way Gone, I was truly not quite interested, however, once I read the reviews, I began to change my mind. Its critics seemed astonished and devastated at the same time…

Ishmael Beah’s Family connection Family has effected various lives in various manners. The term family effects a person named Ishmael Beah as described in his book. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a heart touching biography of an amazing young man, Ishmael Beah, during his years of growing up as a child of war in Sierra Leone. And according to his book A Long Way Gone family life, family relationships and family environment and changed him a lot. During his journey through the war…

Symbolism in A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier Malcom X once said: “Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression” (izquotes) Freedom is fundamental to the growth of humanity. In A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier, author Ishmael Beah examines the concept of freedom and oppression through illustrating his encounters as a child soldier during the Sierra Leone civil war in the 1990s. The dark influences of war strips Beah of his childhood…

A Perfect Night to go to China by David Gilmour, and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, both share and have differences in their elements of fiction. While David Gilmour’s fiction story and Ishmael Beah’s non-fiction story both follow the theme of the loss of innocence, Ishmael Beah’s story adheres more closely to these conventions by allowing its main character to mature, while David Gilmour’s character experience has no real growth. As understood when comparing both…

Such is a case with 13-year old pubescent choirboy John Milton, or “Spud” from Spud by John Van de Ruit, and the vengeful teenager Ishmael Beah from A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Likewise, both protagonists constantly try to overcome their challenges and alter their ways to achieve social dominance and power. In Spud by John Van de Ruit, the protagonist, John Milton, is often referred to “Spud” by his roommate due to his physical…

This theme begins developing at the beginning of the story when Ishmael first sees the horror and violence of war. Ishmael was introduced to war at age 12, after having led a sheltered life. When he sees the rebels drive everyone in his village out of their homes and hurt innocent people, Ishmael loses some of his childhood innocence. All of his innocence is completely lost when he is coerced into joining Sierra Leone’s army as a young boy. The army was able to quickly conscript Ishmael and…