A Long Way Gone Symbolism Essay

Literary authors often use symbols to emphasize their main idea and/or central theme.

In his literary work, A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishamael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom.

Beah’s repeated use of items such as music cassettes, the moon and troubling nightmares help to highlight his story’s powerful theme of oppression and the loss of freedom caused by war.
The rap music cassettes Ishmael treasures throughout his journey symbolize the freedom he enjoyed as a child and reclaims after his escape from the war.
“Junior, Talloi, and I listened to rap music, trying to memorize the lyrics so that we could avoid thinking about the [the war]…” (28).
“As I was being undressed, the rap cassettes fell out of my pockets and

“I became restless and was afraid to sleep for fear that my suppressed thoughts would appear in my dreams” (70).
“One night I dreamt that I was shot in the head…I…couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night” (127).
“I had a dream…a gunman…placed his gun on my forehead. I immediately woke up from my dream…I stayed up all night and couldn’t sleep for a week” (147).
Ishmael’s nightmares are a strong reminder to the reader that the oppression of war has even robbed Ishmael of the simple freedom of sleep.
Through the use of music cassettes, the moon and disturbing nightmares, the loss of freedom and oppression of the Sierra Leone civil war is accentuated.

In his literary work, A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishamael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom.
The use of literary symbol’s is a powerful tool employed very effectively by Beah to bring awareness to the problem of child soldier and the need to find a way to not only rehabilitate these children but to prevent this barbaric tactic from continuing to destroy generations to