1. I have read 5 books in the past year. 2. During the summer, I read weekly. 3. I read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider by Ishmael Beah. I expected this novel to be about a soldier and his first person encounters. I expected this novel to be extremely descriptive and accurate because it is a first person point of view. 4. Ishmael Beah is a young teen boy surviving during the time of war in Sierra Leone. He journeys from village to village after he is separated from his family when the rebels attack. He is a strong soldier and is given more opportunities than he had before when he is asked to be a speaker to represent the country in a national meeting in New York. He experiences new things everyday and is given help by many in his …show more content…
village. He went through traumatic experiences which have caused him to become depressed at a time, and it caused him to question everything in life. When Ishmael was fighting as a soldier, he took drugs to alleviate pain. This caused him to get shot many times and not feel it. It also caused him to not know quite what he was doing. Esther is a nurse at the UNICEF. She helps Ishmael by trying to give him a safe place to live. She offers him time to listen to his rap cassettes and also takes him into the city. She soon gets attached to Ishmael and feels as if she loves him. Junior is Ishmael’s older brother. He protects and looks after his younger brother until they are separated during an attack by the rebels. Junior enjoyed rapping with Ishmael and their other friends. Mohamed was Ishmael’s best friend before the attack their homes. They were separated but later reunited at the UNICEF camp. They spent a lot of time there together to help each other through it. Uncle Tommy is the foster father of Ishmael when he leaves the UNICEF camp. Uncle Tommy takes in Ishmael and cares for him. He gives him memories of his family and is supportive of him. Uncle Tommy dies after their home city is attacked and no doctor is willing to leave the safety of their own family to help. 5. Leslie is a worker for the Benin house. He travels to the UNICEF camp that Ishmael is at and gives him updates about his new foster family. He helps Ishmael get connected with his uncle. Laura is in charge of the organization that brings together children soldiers from around the world.
She helps Ishmael around New York and eventually adopts him when he escapes his life in Sierra Leone. Saidu was in the attack of his house when the rebels attacked. He was forced to hear his parents and sisters being attacked and assaulted. He joined up with Ishmael in the forest during the war. 6. This novel takes place during a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. It is a hard time for citizens of Sierra Leone as the rebels attack and try to conquer their lives. 7. The narrator and author is Ishmael Beah. This novel is told in first person. 8. The major conflict is that Ishmael is lost both physically and mentally because he has been abandoned and taken from his family. He must also avoid the rebels and their attacks. This makes life very difficult until he escapes Sierra Leone by going through many checkpoints and searches to make it out. He ends up in New York and is adopted by Laura, the organizations leader. 9. One day, Ishmael and his friends went into town to preform his rap. He came home to see that the rebels attacked his town. Ishmael wonders in between villages steeling goods and trying to survive. Ishmael finally finds a village that treats them fair. He becomes a boy soldier in the civil
war. Ishmael fights in the war and does things he never thought he would do, kill people Ishmael meets the nurse, Esther, and becomes close with her. He is able to trust her. Ishmael is adopted by his uncle. He goes to live with him, his wife, and their adopted kids. Ishmael gets offered an opportunity to be a speaker to represent Sierra Leone, but he first must get an interview. He goes to the interview and rides in an elevator for the first time. Ishmael goes through the process of getting ready to leave for the United Nations. Ishmael travels to New York and represents Sierra Leone. Ishmael escapes Sierra Leone and goes to New York to be adopted by Laura. 10. The ak-47s symbolize the fact that young boys are being treated as men and not minors. The cassettes are a symbol of innocence and finding safety in such a hard time. The moon is a symbol of hope. When Ishmael looked at the moon when he was in all the different villages, he feels light instead of darkness all around him. 11. The major scene of importance in the novel was when Ishmael decides he needs to leave Sierra Leone to escape the civil war. This makes him realize he must go to a different city to get to New York. He leaves behind his never found family, his friends, his nurse friend Esther, and his uncle and family. This would make them feel sad but we do not know how they react because the novel ends soon after. 12. I wish we could have found out more about Ishmael’s new life in New York, but I feel that the conclusion was fitting because the novel is focused on the war life. 13. Ishmael experiences new things as the novel ends. He lives in New York which is completely new for him and not like Sierra Leone. He still experiences the sadness of not being able to see his family or friends. 14. This novel was exciting because Ishmael finally escaped war and has found a new life in New York 15. I believe the theme is finding revenge against those who have hurt you and survival in the time of war and struggles. Revenge because that is what the soldiers were taught while fighting in war. “Just remember they killed your family” was said to the boys. Survival because Ishmael needed to survive through many obstacles in his life and had gone through a lot both mentally and physically. 16. I would recommend this novel because it was very well written with great description about the war and helps one understand it better. 17. Why didn’t the author continue the novel? What happened after Ishmael’s uncle died? Did Ishmael leave immediately after his uncle died? After the first attack by the rebels, was Ishmael still with his brothers? In the end, why didn’t Ishmael bring his friends with him to a better life?
My prediction of Ishmael walking often is proven correct on page 8 paragraph 2 which states, “At Kabati, we ate, rested a bit, and started the last six miles.” Another part of chapter one that proves my prediction is correct is on page 7 paragraph 4. This page states “To save money, we decided to walk the sixteen miles.” These statements from the book prove that my prediction of Ishmael walking often correct. My other prediction of the setting taking place in Sierra Leone, Africa correct. This was shown on the page titled “New York City, 1998” The conversation shows people asking Ishmael “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” This proves that the story takes place in Sierra
This novel shows experiences you would encounter during school, such as bullying which is the primary focus in this storyline. Over 160,000 people worldwide stay home every day because of bullying. Ishmael believes he has Ishmael Leseur’s Syndrome (ILS), a syndrome he named after his own name, and the only person to have ILS. This syndrome has “caused” him to have low IQ and he describes it as “a walking disaster”. Barry Bagsley causes Ishmael to have many complications throughout the novel. Barry Bagsley finds opportunity
...g that throughout the book, Ishmael is in constant need of a friend to help him in situations like the main plot I mentioned earlier. He is very lucky and makes many of those friends he needs by the end of the book.
...ircumstances as he did, believe that revenge is not good and it keeps on going if no one stops the process. Overall, Ishmael eventually learned that revenge does not solve anything and seeking revenge just results in a longer war sustained by the counterproductive concept of vengeance. Additionally, Ishmael learned that by constantly thinking about his culpability, he was just bringing more harm to himself and in the process was unable to create any progress in his own life. Ishmael eventually realized that merely reflecting on his actions did not do anything and to fix and prevent the problems he faced, he would have to take initiative to reach out to the people who could help. By utilizing the idea of forgiveness, Ishmael learned that he could let go of the huge mountain of stress that was bringing him down and prevented him from overcoming the effects of the war.
Ishmael was a normal 12 year old boy in a small village in Sierra Leone when his life took a dramatic turn and he was forced into a war. War has very serious side effects for all involved and definitely affected the way Ishmael views the world today. He endured and saw stuff that most people will never see in a lifetime let alone as a young child. Ishmael was shaped between the forced use of drugs, the long road to recovery and the loss of innocence of his
In the A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a twelve-year-old explains how he used to go on a swim with his friends and his love for rap music and hip-hop dance. When Ishmael and his friends went to visit Mattru Jong, they visited Ishmael's grandparents in Kabati. While staying at the Mattru Jong, they recieved a terrifying news that Mogbwemo was attacked. When messengers warn the townspeople several times that Mattru Jong is going to be attacked, the townspeople fled and hide until time has passed and everyone returned to their daily life. Until, the rebels actually arrive and people run away from the rebels from more than an hour until the rebels stop chasing them.
Ishmael kills people without it being a big problem or deal. He was forced and threatened. If not then he would be killed. First, he was terrified to see people being killed. In the book, Ishmael quotes “My hand began trembling uncontrollably…” This shows that Ishmael is being aware of his surroundings and of himself. This is important because it shows how Ishmael feels before he and his
Ishmael starts his journey with a will to escape and survive the civil war of Sierra Leone in order to reunite with his mom, dad, and younger siblings, who fled their home when his village was attacked by rebels. Having only his older brother, who he escaped with, and a few friends by his side Ishmael is scared, but hopeful. When the brothers are captured by rebels, Ishmael’s belief in survival is small, as indicated by his fallible survival tactics when he “could hear the gunshots coming closer…[and] began to crawl farther into the bushes” (Beah 35). Ishmael wants to survive, but has little faith that he can. He is attempting to survive by hiding wherever he can- even where the rebels can easily find him. After escaping, Ishmael runs into a villager from his home tells him news on the whereabouts of his family. His optimism is high when the villager, Gasemu, tells Ishmael, “Your parents and brothers wil...
The transition of Ishmael Baeh, from innocent child to a soldier with the blood of his countrymen on his hands, is chronicled in his memoir through the usage of flashbacks that explain his memories. In the beginning of the memo...
In language of the sort one might expect from a well educated man speaking with a friend, Ishmael told Quinn the story of his life. A large portion of it was spent in captivity, before a wealthy elderly man befriended and educated him. At the end of Ishmael's tale, Quinn was still somewhat befuddled.
Ishmael’s search for revenge ended when he was taken out of the front lines of the war by
Ishmael Beah had a broken family, with divorced parents, living with his younger brother, Ibrahim, his older brother, Junior, along with his mother, and had slim to none communication with his father due to his stepmom. “I had not seen him for a while, as another stepmom had destroyed our relationship.” (10) Before gaining knowledge of any type of war approaching his village, Ishmael, Junior, and they’re mutual friend Talloi left town on a voyage to participate in a talent show in the town of Mattru Jong, where the boys would perform a dance routine set to a track of American rap songs they obtained on a cassette. Once they discovered that their village had been under attack by rebels, who often carve the initials ‘RUF’, which stood for Revolutionary United Front, they quickly scurried back to their village in hopes of coming in contact with their family members. Talloi exclaimed, “We must go back and see if we can find our families before it is too late.” Unfortunately the boys were too late, and their families had fled in attempts to survive. Ishmael, and Junior were accompanied with four close friends whose bond...
In addition to him having to overcome difficult odds in order to survive for himself, he also had to care for his weakening father. A similar situation occurs in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, however, Ishmael accepts the situation and is able to defend himself. While they differ in their ability to defend themselves, they both relate in that they need to fight, both mentally and physically, in order to survive. not only because of the hardships they faced, but also because of what they had to do in order to survive. “‘I have never spoken about the Holocaust except in one book.’”
...oss Laura Simms, a narrator and his forthcoming foster mom, and understands the significance of sharing his practice with the world in expectations of avoiding such terrors from happening to other youngsters and to other parts of the world. (chapter 20).Afterwards Ishmael revenues to Freetown, Sierra Leon, a rebellion by the RUF and the Soldierly outs the non-combatant government, and the warfare Ishmael has been escaping from catches up with him. After his uncle’s passing, Ishmael escapes Sierra Leon for nearby Guinea and finally makes his tactic to his different lifetime in the United States (chapter 21).
During the War, after Ishmael's return, and throughout the trial of Kabuo, Hatsue's husband, Ishmael struggles with his feelings, hi...