Ishmael Amnesty Quotes

His group ends up running into the rebels once more, in this settlement we see them lining people up, not particularly violent yet, but Ishmael already reports “struggling to avoid fainting.” We see this stemming off his baseline reaction, but we see this change since the recruitment of children was very common at that point especially for teenage boys. This is a posing threat for Ishmael and his crew, which is why they must keep moving. This pressure caused Ishmael to have violent, self harm thoughts such as when he “looked at the blades of the machetes and thought about how much it would hurt to be chopped into one.” This is when violence is first seen as non horrific and as a passing thought.

At this young of an age, Ishmael had no clue what to think, especially without his family. A quote to support this was, “ We walked fast as if trying to stay in the daytime, afraid that nightfall would turn over the uncertain pages of our lives,” (Beah 88). This evidence displays how frightened Ishmael was ever since the war began. He fought in this part of his lifetime. Ishmael would always keep an eye out for anything, including the vicious rebels.

Killing people and destroying villages makes Ishmael a very dangerous soldier. Ishmael has joined the team because of how the Rebels killed all of his family. Ishmael was angry that his family died but he was not the one how did. He wanted to have his family around, so this parents can see Ishmael grow up to an adult. Ishmael had to do something to get his revenge on the Rebels, “I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in the process I will kill another person whose family will ant revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will come to an end”

Ishmael is now alone, before he knows it he is abducted by army soldiers. Ishmael is given two abstruse choices to pick from. He can either walk away, but risk the chance of getting shot. Or he can serve for the army and gain the privileges of shelter, food, and safety. On page 87, Ishmael describes himself feeling dejected and downgraded.

My opinion: I feel that if Ishmael was given the option to join the military or go to America with his friends, I think he would have gone to America. No teenager should have to be forced to kill people and I wished Ishmael and his group fought back with in the rebel group when they were captured by the rebels. I also hoped that he would have been able to escape everything before he got picked up by the army and I think he was not a terrible person he was just ordered to terrible acts. 4.

Have you ever thought about the traumatizing events Elie and Ishmael have experienced? Although both authors experience physical and mental pain, there are differences between them. Ishmael and Elie are two young boys who encounter deadly events which change them as a person; one becomes an unwilling boy soldier while the other is taken in as a prisoner. Both Night and A Long Way Gone tell the story Elie who is a young boy trying to survive as a prisoner of war, while, Ishmael Beah is a boy fighting for his life as a boy soldier; neither boy has control over their situation. “When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and son” (Wiesel 102).

Another event that was probably his final turn before deciding to become a violent child soldier. In chapter 11, Ishmael has just lost his family and blames Gasemu and tries to kill him, “walked behind Gasemu and locked his neck under my arm. I squeezed him as hard as I could” (Beah 96). this quote demonstrates how Ishmael is willing to kill now for revenge as the quote did not show any hesitation from Ishmael. As shown in the article Child soldiers battle traumas in Congo rehab, it reads, “the children, they go back to their villages and they tell other children carrying a gun is not the way” (Nima).

Throughout the course of the novel, Ishmael portrays the loss of innocence in himself and the kids around him. Before the war, Ishmael was an optimistic young boy with a passion for

The fear of being hit by a stray bullet from the rebel was a part of everyday life. Due to all the chaos, there was no escaping the killing of blameless individuals. “The last causality that we saw that evening was a woman who carried her baby on her back, Blood was running down her dress and dripping behind her, making a trail. Her child had been shot as she ran for her life ( Bael 13)”. As Ishmael observes more grotesque event, he becomes jaded so tragedies don’t affect him.

Ishmael does a magnificent job in telling his story, he envelops the reader and does not let go until the very end. But some will not want to be let

Ishmael’s dreams are typically violent and often terrify him. His nightmares typically consist of violence consistent with what he experienced in Sierra Leone. As he describes: “these days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past” (Beah 20). While his dreams remind him of the horrors of war he encountered, it helps him cope with the issues of his childhood. As a result of his dreams, he is able to accept his treatment in Sierra Leone, while moving past his early tragedies and start a new life.

In the book “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael has to overcome his fears and desperation especially when he ends up in villages that dislike little kids because of the assumption that they are rebel soldiers. Sometimes he comes face to face with death like the time when some of the villagers who were suffering the civil war, capture Ishmael and his new accompanied friends they were saying ”We told him we were students and this was a big misunderstanding. The crowds shouted, drown the rebels”(Beah 38). When the village guards found a rap cassette in Ishmael's pocket they played the music and it pleased the chief and so they were excused from execution and as a result they were offered to also stay in the village for how long they wanted. This part in the story paves a path from Ishmael to talk and although that was one of his major obstacles pertaining to his life he succeeded and faced adversity by pleading that they were not rebels but

but he often showed us of both the freedom and oppression that he experienced. Symbolism showed us ways to see both themes in different ways. Ishmael found a way to speak to his audience through symbols to underscore the importance of freedom as well as oppression in a boy soldier's

He idea (false hope), to from harm (Page 13)”. attempts to understand the push through the reasoning behind why one war? If so… how? pretends all is well, even though the opposite is true. Ishmael had not yet been introduced to the tragedies that would come with war.

The way Beah explained what happened to him, he did it in a sad way. My response to the writer is that I feel sorry for him. I cannot relate to him in any way since I have never been exposed to war and even been a soldier fighting in it. He was strong through the hardest part of his life; the actual war itself, rehabilitation, and ultimately escaping Freetown, Sierra Leone to eventually fly over to New York and start a new life. Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, replays a part of Beah’s life that will always be very vivid to him.