5 paragraph essay long way gone
How does isolating himself emotionally help Beah to survive his experiences in the Sierra Leone civil war? Beah's experiences force him to deny his emotional side in order to survive. His flight from RUF attacks on the various villages in Sierra Leone requires him to let go of attachments to family and friends. Although he holds out hope to see his family, he has no choice but to close off himself to the world.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The devastating story of war through the eyes of a child soldier.
Beah tells how, at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some , child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop?
Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.
This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty. Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about A Long Way Gone , please sign up. How do I make a review? Diane Armstrong You read the book, first, making notes about your observations about the book's different aspects Then you write a small essay about those feaatures and your evaluation of their quality for its audience.
How do i make a roblox server for me and my friends? Cole D Sorry for your missgidence but i found out how thanks everybody. See all 15 questions about A Long Way Gone…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Nov 18, Jennifer aka EM rated it liked it Shelves: heartbreak-boys. I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry for what I am about to do.
It seems unbelievably curmudgeonly of me to judge this book harshly given its subject matter. But I can't let the deep empathy I feel for this former Sierra Leonean child soldier cloud my judgement of his memoir.
I give him five stars - more! But, this is about the book--did the book work, did the book move me as it had the immense potential to do, did it put me into his world and let me share his trauma and pain at a visceral level - making me angry, sad, guilty, moved to action? And the answer to all of that is, not really.
It had three major flaws really, I blame the editor : 1. The lead-up to Beah's kidnapping into the army lacked the kind of rich detail that made the loss of that life resonate throughout the rest of the story. The time spent in the army -- the drugs, the brutality of the 'training', the weeks-long missions in the bush, fuelled only by drugs and fear, the orgies of killing, raping and looting -- all that we know happens, we didn't see here.
Beah's time in the army was the shortest part of this book. For him, emotionally and psychologically, it's completely understandable--even if he wanted to unlikely he probably can't --because of the drugs and trauma--even remember.
It's a terrible thing, but this book needed him to. The book ended abruptly with a major piece of the story left hanging -- I guess I can't tell you what. So often, books - especially memoirs - inherently have a built-in problem with the end. We always know the end -- at least in broad strokes, but you still have to take us there, and take us to a point that it makes sense to stop even though obviously, if you're writing it, the story didn't stop.
In this case, Beah stopped about two crucial plot points before he should have. What was most effective for me was the rehabilitation section of the story. This is where Beah's detached, almost fugue-like point-of-view seemed to work so well. It's also where his memories of what he experienced were set up in stark relief to the difficulty of his recovery -- that contrast, and the level of detail that then emerged, made for compelling reading. In fact, I'm upping from 2 to 3 stars solely based on the redemption the rehabilitation segment offers the story.
It made up - to some extent - for flaws 1 and 2. Maybe the entire story should have been set during the rehabilitation period, with flash forwards and flashbacks? Because of some work I am doing right now for an organization working in the field of international development and poverty reduction, I am particularly interested in how to tell these kinds of stories: how do you avoid exploitation while retaining the emotional power of the story to motivate readers to empathy and action?
What form works? What level of detail? What tone and POV? Dave Eggers wrote a jacket blurb as did Jon Stewart -- and this book shows me a little why Eggers' approach, as in What Is The What at its heart, a remarkably similar journey and in Zeitoun -- works so well, where this one didn't.
It takes a deft writer to manage these literary choices: it's about how the story is told as much or even more than what the story is. Maybe that's just me -- maybe I'm asking a memoir to use fictional devices and story-telling techniques and maybe that's just not fair.
Maybe that's why Eggers is the epitome for me, because he is able to tread that line perfectly imho, and brings, too, the journalist's eye to the story. What do you think? Should memoirs be held to the same standards as fiction in terms of plot, pacing, tone, characterization, etc.? All or some of these? Or is there a different set of standards that need to be applied, a different way to experience them?
View all 43 comments. Jan 31, Chris rated it it was amazing Shelves: top-shelf , current-events , history. I will never. Complain about my childhood again.
Okay, that's not true. I will. But when I let out a sad sigh of remorse that I didn't figure out exactly why I really wanted to be friends with that one guy in band in high school until it was way too late to do anything about it, I will at least think, "At least I wasn't killing people and snorting gunpowder. I didn't know there w I will never. I didn't know there was anything to know. And anyway, that was in east Africa.
West Africa was supposed to be a little better organized. Shows how much I knew. Turns out all hell was breaking loose. After more than a decade of one-party rule, the Sierra Leonean military got into power and behaved pretty much the same way most African military governments did. Their initial cause was to get rid of a corrupt government, but they very quickly went corrupt themselves, burning and slaughtering as they went.
The rebels were vicious and bloodthirsty, and one of their most common ways of recruiting was to murder men and woman en masse and bring their sons into the fold. They would manipulate them with fear and drugs and hate, turning boys of ten, eleven, twelve years old into murderers. Ishmael Beah was on the other end of this. His family was killed when the RUF ran over his town, along with most of his friends.
He and his schoolmates tried to run away, but were eventually ensnared by the army.
Free Essays from Bartleby | "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice Ishmael Beah, author of the book A Long Way Gone speaks from experience. Write a paragraph summarizing the main argument or purpose. Words | 5 Pages. 5 Things I've Learned Literary Analysis Essay In A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, many events change his life and he has to.
Cassie's DP. Search this site. Abstract Identities.
He was plagued with a war in his home country, taking away his childhood and family.
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A Long Way Gone
JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Ever dream of being a war hero? American culture loves to celebrate wars and battles. Movies like Rambo and make fighting look almost fun.
A Long Way Gone Essay
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Long way gone essay Dave January 07, 4. Trust in any way to a long way gone theme essays.
When he is twelve years old, Beah's village is attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends. Among the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander from village to village in search of food and shelter. Their day-to-day existence is a struggle of survival, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never have believed themselves capable of, such as stealing food from children.
Essay about A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Literary Analysis Essay He spends the first few chapters of the book attempting to find his way home but when he learns Discuss Beah's time in Benin Home. How did the boys' behavior change Riveting yet readable, unimaginable yet unforgettable, A Long Way Gone is sure to become a classic In a brief essay, reflect on what Ishmael's. That he has written this unforgettable firsthand Get free homework help on Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, and character analysis courtesy of Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5.
A Long Way Gone Essay Questions
Ishmael was living a happy life in Sierra Leone, at least until the civil war broke out. Then, like other civilians, he was forced to run for his life, becoming separated from his family and later losing them to the rebels. He later found a way to be rehabilitated and regain his childhood. He once again learned how to love, which he does by having hope. Hope is a major theme throughout the novel. Ishmael expressed. I chose to read this book for a very good purpose.
