Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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Recommended: Impact of violence on readers

In the memoir, “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah is about the author as a child in Sierra Leone who is thrown into a brutal civil war. Throughout this memoir he uses vivid detail to describe the violence he sees. This is a crucial part of the novel because violence is the reason that Ishmael shifts from childhood into full maturity thus, developing his character. To begin, after being conscripted by the very place he thought would be safe awaits to ambush the rebels. At first, when the fighting breaks out he is numb but, his body kicks into full survival mode when he witnesses his friend Josiah pinned against the tree by an RPG. He remarks, “The gunshots faded in my head, and it was as if my heart had stopped and the whole world had come to

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