A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

The impact of war can have very harmful effects on people, especially children. In “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, he explains the war of Sierra Leone from his point of view. The tragedy of losing his family, becoming a boy soldier, and the effects of war is said throughout the book, making it an interesting story to read. But, while Ishmael explains what he went through, it is hidden that other people were affected by the actions he took. Although Ishmael did play a victimizer, he was also a victim at the same time.

A Long Way Gone, is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone and grew up during the civil war in Sierra Leone. In, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael tells the reader his experiences as a boy soldier and his experiences in rehabilitation in order to regain his humanity. The book begins with Ishmael answering questions to his high school friends, in New York, about his time in the war.

A Long Way Gone is the accurate adventure of Ishmael Beah, who becomes a soldier during a horrifying war in Sierra Leone. When Ishmael was twelve years old, his village got attacked while he was out with his friends for a rap music competition. After the village got attacked, he lost contact with his brother, mother and father; but one of his brother stayed with for a while finding food and shelter. Ishmael goal was to survive throughout the war, so he turned himself into a totally new person.

A Long Way Gone is an autobiography written by Ishmael Beah, the book details his childhood throughout the Sierra Leon civil war. The book shows how you can turn an innocent child into a killing machine. We see both sides of the warring party do this with them drugging the children, turning them against the enemy with propaganda and threatening them with death. These are the factors that made a quarter of all the soldiers within this war under the age of eighteen.

Furthermore, Beah has struggled with losing his family and is brain washed that he starts to lose his humanity. To clarify, when the rebels were planning an attack on a village Beah releases his anger on the rebels by shooting as many rebels from the other village as he can. “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn't feel any better”(122). In this moment, the pain that Beah has from losing his family turns into hatred for the rebels that killed his loved ones and Beah believes that killing more

In Ishmael Beah’s personal memoir, A Long Way Gone, music courses through the story quite often. Music is first seen in Ishmael’s peaceful childhood. He and his friends enjoy singing and dancing along to music, in particular, Rap Music. As the story progresses, and the war becomes more prevalent in the young boys lives, rap continues to play a substantial role in their lives, just in a different way. At the end of Ishmael’s life story, there is yet another role that music plays.

Ishmael Beah had grown up in Mogbwemo, Sierra Leone, a tight knit community where he was always surrounded by people who cared about him. Sierra Leone was always pleasant place to live until the chaos of the Civil War attacked the village. “The first time that [Ishmael] was touched by the war [he] was twelve… [He] left home with Junior, [his] older brother, and [their] friend Talloi… to go to the town of Mattru Jong to participate in [their] friends’ talent show” (Beah, 6). The war hit Mogbwemo very unexpectedly, “Since [Ishmael and his friends] intended to return the next day, [they] didn’t say goodbye or tell anyone where [they] were going.

As a result, he killed every person he saw move an inch out of pure anger. Beah’s army unit also frequently used drugs especially the leaders of the group. The usage of drugs helped Beah cope with his feelings of killing people. Beah experienced many other battles and wars with other groups through out his life. One particular occurred when he was at the age of 15 in 1996.

His personality has altered from being friendly to ruthless. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael faces similar changes. As it states in the novel, “We didn’t have enough time to thank her and tell her to thank her son for his hospitality,” (A Long Way Gone 65). The protagonist shows kindness and gratitude for the adults who give him and his friends protection. This demonstrates Ishmael’s manners are initially proper and are being used appropriately.

After the “white tablet” Beah takes to boost his energy before battle wheres off following his return that night, he is faced with an extreme nightmare where Beah dreams, “... I was picking up Josiah from the tree stump and a gunman stood on top of me. He placed his gun on my forehead. I immediately woke up from my dream and began shooting inside the tent” (120). This intense nightmare from Beah shows how war, especially at this young of an age causes extreme difficulties as they take drugs to try to cover up these problems which does not last. Succeeding the wars end, after falling asleep reading the lyrics of a song in rehabilitation,

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.

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.

Even of his father. Here there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone. I’ll give you a soul piece of advice-don’t give your ration of bread and soup to your old father, There’s nothing you can do for him. And you’re killing yourself.

On page 101 he mentions that he felt the emptiness of the house settling down around him. Where was his mother? Where had all the people who used to fill these rooms gone to? On page 101 he whispered “Daddy…”, “Mama…”. This is a reason that shows why his relationship with his parents is distant.

2015 7th Grade Summer Reading NON-FICTION ASSIGNMENT My first reaction to the topic of A Long Way Gone was shock. This book is about an African boy, named Ishmael Beah, having his family and friends slaughtered, home after home destroyed, and childhood taken by the civil war in Sierra Leone. I never could imagine having everything being taken away from me and running for my life for a year like Ishmael.