Sierra Mist

literary work, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom. First of all, he uses dreams to show the many challenges he faced throughout his life and journey through Sierra Leone. Secondly, Ishmael uses his cassettes to symbolize past memories throughout his childhood and the good times they brought. Last of all, Ishmael uses the moon/sky as a symbol of hope, wholeness, positivity, and freedom. Firstly,…

Ishmael’s life has been operated on autopilot ever since the war struck home, but when his war terminates abruptly he uncovers forgiveness, regains 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…

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a true story of a young boy soldier’s life. Just at the age of twelve when he was away from home, his village had been attacked. When he returned with his brother and some friends there was confusion and violence that made them go from village to village in search for things for survival such as food. They also do many things in desperation that they may have never thought of doing. Later on Ishmael was taken in as a soldier by the army. He became brainwashed…

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…

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” William Sherman. A Long Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, recounts a real life experience of a child soldier in Sierra Leone and like Sherman said he finds war to be hell. The memoir portrays in horrific detail the realities of war and the effects it has on all the people. Ishmael Beah is only twelve when the war arrives on his doorstep in 1993. It tears apart his family and leaves him to wander the…

Perseverance is an important theme in A Long Walk to Water and is demonstrated by Salva in this story. The first example is Salva, he had to persevere through many things. The first thing he had to persevere through is getting away from the rebel soldiers. Salva had to run away from his home and family in the hope of seeing them again. Salva encountered many occasions where the rebel soldiers killed many people around him and Salva had to keep persevering through these tragedies. In this story…

kidnapped from their homes in Kuiva, a village in eastern Sierra Leone. Hundreds of children including Abu were forced by the Liberian mastermind Charles Taylor to fight with the rebels. With all of the drugs and alcohol that they are forced to take, Abu can’t remembered the first time that he killed. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, was charged with 11 counts of war offenses and crimes against civilization for the help to launch the Sierra Leone decade long civil war. Taylor is known…

Ishmael lives a peaceful life, he wakes up and enjoys the time he gets and love every part of the sun he sees. He didn’t get to have this privilege when he was 16 years old. He had to face all the devastating events that left him despondent. Ishmael was useless, he was forced to join one of the child soldier armies to fight for his side. Ishmael joined the army with his innocence as a kid, but as he proceeded through days and days of being a child soldier, he became more violent with killing…

village. He then faces his village being taken by the rebels, he is now homeless and must try to survive, making him a refugee. After all that he went through escaping the rebels and other people who wanted to cause him harm, he was captured by the Sierra Leone Military. They taught him how to fight and turned him into a child soldier. As an innocent boy in Mogbwemo, he was going to school and striving to get an education. He never really understood the war, as he said in Chapter One, “There…

Situations of high pressure and little time call for quick action. In 1991, war erupted in Sierra Leone. Everyone was affected, even the children. There was no time to for them to evolve; thus, they tried to tackle the war before properly learning how to handle it. In each of their stories, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara, two children who experienced the war in Sierra Leone tell about the severe circumstances they were in along with the choices they…