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…

This novel was a very enlightening, firsthand account of the atrocities of civil war that not only affect many countries and their citizens, but especially children. Ishmael Beah was separated from his family at age 12 because he and his brother were away from their home in the small country of West Africa known as Sierra Leone, performing in a rap group with friends, when their home village was attacked. Ishmael, his brother and their friends wandered from village to village in search of food…

consider many things to determine the story’s relevance, such as the content of the story and universal themes. Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because of its use of complex ideas and universal themes that make this text a worthy champion for the curriculum. Beah’s extensive and sophisticated figurative language appeal to the reader and forces him to think beyond literal representation and think about the deeper meaning.…