A Long Way Gone Essay

A Long Way Gone speaks of a child soldier who follows the idea of the word resume. Ishmael Beah's life went through a pause when he found himself surrounded by war. His book speaks of this pause in his life and how he resumed it. As a child in Sierra Leone, Beah had to face much more hardship than most anyone, but life can make anyone lose their way and put who they are on pause. However, Life may have a pause button, but it doesn’t rewind.

Symbolism is used to help you not only understand the characters but also helps develop a coherent theme. In the long way gone the symbol used to help explain Ishmael’s struggles comes straight from his own pocket in the form of a beat-up cassette. It follows him along on the journey and with its demise you also see the tragic end of the childhood it has represented. When the fighting and violence started to occur brought by rebels and soldiers Beah and his friends still had the cassettes to enjoy and dance around with allowing them to still have an essence of childhood.

He then starts off as if he is in Sierra Leone. He talks about how he would refuse to accept that the war is heading towards his town. He also introduces his family and friends. The horror starts to happen in an evening when the rebels arrive to his town and start attacking people.

Upon first glance, the title of the book “A Long Way Gone” appears to apply to the physical distance Ishmael Beah has travelled from his home town of Mogwembo since the attack on his hometown. Upon further analysis, it more accurately describes the emotional distance he has travelled. From losing his family and friends, fighting in the war, getting involved with drugs, and becoming a human rights activist, Beah faced unimaginable circumstances. Throughout his journey, he lost his innocence, became involved in fighting and drugs, and finally developed into someone who rose above his circumstances to advocate for others in his place. Ishmael Beah was once an innocent child, who grew up in a relatively happy family.

It is all downhill from there. Following, he is separated from his mother and sister, which is the last time he saw them. Then he is tortured, literally. Beat, starved, deprived of sleep and water. To top it off, his father passes away due to being in horrible conditions while being held prisoner.

Once he gets home he uses his courage and fights every suitor living in his home, risking his life before he could

A Long Way Gone: inaugurates a world where young men, like Ishmael Beah, are forced to participate in the civil war of Sierra Leone causing them to lose their families. This book definitely outlines the importance of family through Ishmael’s experiences of adaptation, i s o l a t i o n , a n d m e m o r i e s o f h i s p a s t . A L o n g W a y G o n e t e a c h e s u s a l e s s o n t o a p p r e c i a t e t h e family we have, compared to the loneliness Ishmael once felt as a young

Not experiencing war is a luxury many people unfortunately do not get; however, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, lives and survives the war, though not without heartache. With war there is always fear, death, and hell. Ishmael Beah proves war is hell through the killing of civilians, the distrust, and the after effects of the war. Ishmael proves war is hell through the killing of civilians. Many innocent bystanders of the war are forced out of their homes, made to run for their lives.

Even though Ishmael had not been to the war yet, he had experienced so much trauma already. They caused him to picture terrifying situations. Even when he could settle down enough to get some sleep, terrorizing nightmares filled his mind with panic. When these things started happening to Ishmael, he tried to shut them off with drugs but it didn’t help. Instead, it would not only cause migraines but also cause him to shut down completely which demonstrates his loss of humanity.

The human condition is full of paradoxes and double meanings. We can commit the most shocking and terrible acts, but we can complete the most virtuous and honorable feats. Ishmael Beah describes the appalling and violent behavior he and other children exhibited toward the human life during his time in the Sierra Leonean civil war in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. Beah also details the forgiveness and kindness of complete strangers that helped him become the man that fate meant him to be. Homo sapiens are complex creatures brimming with irony and surprises.

The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone. Beah uses the theme of family and love, along with the use of symbolism and other literary devices, to inform a larger audience of the issues that he and others had to face while trying to survive in a war zone. A Long Way Gone, an autobiographical memoir, written by Ishmael Beah, takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of their civil war.

What is the meaning of adversity? Adversity is the difficulties, misfortunes, and sometimes even trials one must face in order to jump over an obstacle. WWll, holocaust, Racism are all adversities that pertain to individuals and events in the past and the present. One of the events that happened was in Sierra Leone and it was a Civil war between different African tribes. This event is explained through the eyes of the main character in the book “A Long Way Gone”, and his name is Ishmael Beah.

In a whole the novel was full of him bringing up memories and in some ways i felt it helped him stay with himself and not lose the Ishmeal beah the had a hip hop group with his friends even though slowly he was turning into a Soldier that killed without

As the story progresses, the reader sees that desires become a more important role in Ishmael’s life and it made him from being an innocent child into a bloodthirsty soldier only looking for something to slaughter. From these transitioning desires Ishmael becomes less and less stable, making him easily

Ultimately he fails and is destroyed by his failure, a unfortunate man, destined to be a hero but unequipped to transfer that heroism to the government of people he sought to