Ishmael Beah

In his memoirs Ishmael Beah recounts his experiences of fighting a war as a boy soldier. Ishmael and his friends went on the run after their village was attacked by rebels. Not long after they were on the run from town to town, and eventually being caught and recruited by the army. The army was against what the rebels were doing, and how they were attacking the different villages and burning them to the ground. During the war ,Ishmael during the war is selected along with a group of his friends to go to a rehabilitation center. Through the horrors that Ishmael Beah experienced as a young boy in the war, he pushed for a peaceful and compassionate society that would be accepting of everyone, even if they had once been a boy soldier through no…

Ishmael Beah was a component of the child recruited soldier. He was born on Nov 23, 1980, in Sierra Leone. Ishmael and his brother fall in love with hip hop at such a young age. To them, Hip Hop is just a music and they enjoying it, not knowing that Hip Hop will later be a lifesaver. In 1991, The civil war in Sierra Leone started; Ishmael, an innocent young boy, on the other hand has no clue of what a war looks like. He would never think that this war, particularly will transmute his life…

the death of my family, as I had come to truly believe” (Beah 124). In the Memoir “a long way gone” by Ishmael Beah, sees 12-year-old Ishmael trying to survive in the war stricken country of Sierra Leone. Ishmael is just an ordinary boy when the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) attacks his home of Mattru Jong, while he is away in a neighboring city. For the next year Ishmael runs away from the war desperate to find his family. He journeys with a group of boys, but soon loses them to the chaos…

However, a soldier’s positivity derives from more brutal and destructive experiences than those of a war victim. Violence, under many circumstances causes harm to its victims, but it is the blood and lifeline of the soldiers. Ishmael Beah from A Long Way Gone is a prime example of a boy soldier amid war. “We needed…

I feel that the theme of the book is survival. At first Beah didn’t even believe that the war would reach Mattru Jong which was where he was staying. Once the war hit where he was, his life changed completely. He knows that if the rebels catch him it will not be a good outcome so he runs and hides for his life. A young, innocent boys life is completely turned around due to this tragic war. He becomes used to seeing blood and death every day of his life and at one point is seconds away from…

hope, and opts to make a difference in the world. UNICEF is an organization that works with a mutual goal of providing sustenance for the destitute children around the world. One purpose they have is to halt child soldier enlistment and to rehabilitate the child soldiers, so they can reclaim their humanity. After UNICEF took Ishmael and other young child soldiers, they placed them in a rehabilitation center. Soon, it was time for Ishmael Beah to be reinstalled in society; “at the end of our…

Summary: In this story Ishmael Beah, a 12-year-old, is living through hard times. The African Civil war is going on and he tries to escape the rebels and the military. Unwillingly, he joins the military at age 13 on the front lines with 7-years-olds. He killed so many people throughout his military years. The African government sucked all the innocence from him. For 3 years he fought in military and at age 16 was sent to a rehabilitation center by the UNICEF. He struggles to understand…

you no matter what” -Unknown. This quote explains Ishmael and his friends and family. Ishmael Beah’s world gets turned upside down and twisted around within the course of two days. He loses his family, his friends, and his innocence. Family is the most important thing to Ishmael. It helps him survive day after day. But, it changes every time someone leaves or comes. During the war, he never truly has a family or a certain person he can rely on. This why family is the most significant theme in…

It starts with a child. By the age of three, these young, bound-to-be soldiers, are being taught how to hold a gun by the tip of their fingers. It’s common amongst countries that hold poverty or places where war breaks out through every corner. This is an endless supply of children, fighting as if adults. They don’t know any better; they’re children. However, does this mean they should be given amnesty? Or has empathy taken over our hearts and manipulated our minds to think these children should…

missed in school, and also provide rehabilitation for the kids. Proof that rehabilitation is a way for these soldiers to have successful lives, are the stories of Ishmael Beah and Jal, “Two years later, after recovering from drug addiction and trauma, Beah came to the U.S. He graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 2004 and now travels on behalf of UNICEF to raise awareness of the plight of child soldiers...Jal recalls being taken to Ethiopia, where he was recruited by a rebel group based in…