I believe Ishmael’s level of resilience throughout the story was immensely high considering the age he was during the war. One example, was when Ishmael first experiences the war and loses all of his family except his brother, Junior. Ishmael does not complain about walking miles and miles all day long in the scorching sun, when many kids his age would start complaining after fifteen minutes on a nice breezy day. As well as, when Ishmael was all alone in the forest he did not act crazy about the freedom he had, but instead was orderly and still did day to day necessary activities while remaining calm. He always shows that even in the toughest situations he acts just like an adult and is always in control, when kids his age lost their cool and acted crazy leading them to die. Last but not least, when Ishmael was at the rehabilitation center he did act agitated, but recovers from the worst thing a child could be during the war, a child soldier. He acts insane and puts his life at risk when he is a soldier because he did drugs everyday and killed hundreds of people for years, and all it takes for him to recover to be a normal child again is eight months.…
This illustrates that Ishmael has a good heart and will do what he thinks is right, under good mental condition. And it connects with the book because when he was a child soldier , he was doing things that made him unhappy and traumatized. All the experiences and images has caused him to be in the position he is in now. But all of this came out fine because of his good heart. He cared for his family. friends, and other children. And it shows that Ishmael will sacrifice his own life for anyone that he loves.…
Additionally, Ishmael identity was shaped by war. Being in the army made him not scared of the rebels because he was part of a larger group going after rebel bases. Ishmael was thinking about his new life in the army and what he was doing. Ishmael said “ My childhood had gone by without my knowing and it seemed as if my heart had frozen” (126). Suffering from the loss of his family at a young age plus living life with the daily fear of being killed by rebels that caused him to suppress his feelings. When he suppressed his feeling he started to go crazy and thinking about how his parents died.…
5. Explain how this harrowing account of civil war and childhood is a meditation on finding one’s ultimate purpose. How does Ishmael, at a relatively early age, arrive at what seems to be his calling in life?…
Ishmael Beah is rescued, against his will, from a life that surely would have ended soon. Taken by UNICEF to a rehabilitation camp, Beah begins the long struggle to reintegrate into a normal existence. However, the children cause much trouble for the volunteer staffers at the facility, with Ishmael experiencing symptoms of drug withdrawal as well as troubling memories of his time as a child soldier. Beah is constantly reminded of his horrid and malicious past remembering the stacks of children's body's that have been killed in action (Pg. 100). “One boy asked how I was doing and what I had been up to. I wanted to tell him that I had done…
When an individual is torn away from his/her parents, moral corruption may be imminent. Once Ishmael and his friends are separated from their families, they are looked down upon by others. They are seen as filthy, useless beings, and that arises many internal conflicts. The separation also leaves a lot of responsibility on the individual. They have to provide for themselves. “Apart from eating and drinking water and once every other day taking a bath, I spent most of my time fighting myself mentally in order to avoid thinking about… where my family and friends were.”(Beah 52). This quote from the memoir shows how he was experiencing self conflict because of the loss of his family. It shows that separation from one’s family impacts his/her life.…
Sometimes, there are situations where people are starving and in great need of food and resources. “One evening we actually chased a little boy who was eating two ears of boiled corn by himself” (30). Ishmael and his friends have nothing so when they have the chance to steal food they take it, even if it’s from a small child. Ishmael does not want to do these things but the situation he’s in forces him to do so. Ishmael feels bad after he takes the food but he realizes that he cannot feel sorry for others during the war. Also, Ishmael and his friends are forced to steal because the vendors are no longer selling food because the fear that the rebels will come and take everything they have. This shows that people will do what they need to do just to survive.…
. This song is about someone having to live up to the expectations someone else wants for them. They are pressured into having to be exactly like that person. They are nonstop always being smothered, and absolutely hate the fact that they cannot be who they want to be. They eventually get tired of listening to him/her and start living to their own expectations.…
In A long way gone, by Ishmael Beah the main character ishmael struggles to good in a society that demands evil. As ishamel feels he is doing good, the lines of good and evil become extreamly blured. During Ishmael first battle, he fought angirly to avenge the dead that the R.U.F killing mercelsey as it shows in text “Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my lifeless friend, I angirly pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people”(119). Later in the text ishmael is no longer guided by revenge nor fairness. He starts to kill without any concious what so ever, as shown when ishmael Is not protected, and is willing to protect himself by standing up for his country and fighting for rights. “ Killing those they had already severly wonded”(122). In this quote it shows how ishmael is doing extra work and taking his anger out on his enemies,that where doing harsh actions to ishmaels people. As ismael becomes a full cold blooded solider he seemingly forgets the reasons he fought for the R.U.F after U.N.I.C.E.F takes ishmael and some of his comrades, they begin to hate the thing they fought for. In the text: “They have lost every that makes them human. They dont deserve to live, that is why we must kill every single on of them”(108). To anaylze this quote, ishmael points out that the rebels dont deserve to live due to what the rebels where doing to innocent people. According to ishmael he wants to kill all of them for all of the things they where doing to his people, and show them that he has…
Joining the rebel group, Ishmael receives an opportunity of physical survival yet this accompanies adapting to the cruel reality of guns, drugs and murder to survive the…
While Ishmael was running from the war, the idea of killing people hunted him. He could never understand how people would kill and not be affected by it. Whenever the rebels would execute civilians it would shake him up. Once Ishmael joined the army, his state of mind and judgement changed. Ishmael talks about killing innocent people stating, “killing had become as easy as drinking water. My mind had not only snapped during the first killings, it had also stopped making remorseful records” (Beah 122). This shows that after joining the army Ishmael had changed. Instead of making him sick, killing now gave him some type of fulfilment. While he was fighting, he wouldn’t feel anything. Ishmael had become immune to the world around him.…
In the song, Tyler Joseph states, “Sometimes quiet is violent / I find it hard to hide it / My pride is no longer inside…”, “I'm forced to deal with what I feel / There is no distraction to mask what is real…”, and, “And now i just sit in silence”. In the book, Ishmael is alone with his thoughts because there is nothing to distract him. He’s sitting in the silence of his thoughts and is forced to deal with it because he has no one to talk to him and be with him. In the book, Ishmael remembers his father saying,“ “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.” (page 72) This saying is something that Ishmael uses to remember that he should never give up and that he should have ambition. The lyrics, “There’s faith and there’s sleep / We need to pick one please because / Faith is to be awake / And to be awake is for us to think / And for us to think is to be alive”, also support the theme of having ambition and not giving up.…
Being and becoming ambitious and loyal is not effortless. Ishmael has acquired these traits from the various experiences he endured during the occurrence of the war. One of the vast amounts of experiences and occurrences that transpired was when Ishmael’s friend, Saidu passes out and the group of boys are unsure if he’s alive or not. “We will have to carry him to the next village, however far that might be” (Beah 83) Even though Ishmael possessed an insufficient amount of knowledge of these boys than his other group they have associated and have bonded with each other through the occurrences of events. Not only Ishmael, but also the group have implemented and represented how ambitious and loyal they are. The second example, Ishmael portrays loyalty when he first arrives at the rehabilitation center and they are implanted with the enemy, the rebels (Beah 135). He is portraying loyalty to the army, who he has fought for the past year. When the boys extract a fight with the rebels, Ishmael fights along side of his army combatants. The final example occurs when Ishmael is chosen to be a spokesperson for the rehabilitation center. Ishmael states, “we can be rehabilitated” (Beah 175) this is demonstrating how ambitious…
The author includes this violence to spur action, cause plot complications, and trigger stress in other characters. When the rebels attacked Ishmael's village he was separated from the rest of his family. It was up to Ishmael to decide whether he wanted to risk his life to search for his family or if he wanted to flee for safety. Later in the novel Ishmael and his group of stay in a village. The village is attacked, but Ishmael is able to escape just in time. However he has also lost his friends in all the commotion. He spends five days searching for his basic needs. During this time he also faces other struggles such as hunger, thirst, boredom, and pain. This causes the plot complications. At the end of the novel, Ishmael must escape the country into Guinea for freedom. He needs to board a bus with his passport. As he is nearing the border he sees a group of men with heavy gun power patrolling the border. He starts to freak out over every possibility. He tries to think of what would…
impact on Ishmael Beah's life throughout the hard times he had to go through to get to his life now.…