A Long Way Gone Summary

Improved Essays
Show More
A Long Way Gone by: Ishmael Beah
Chapter 1
Ishmael (main character) ten years old describes the idea of war as entirely abstract to his young mind and insists that he and his fellow villagers didn't have the capacity to understand what the refugees coming through his village had experienced
Ishmael, Junior, Talloi, and Mohamed sing rap music- learned during visit to Mobimbi (fathers and other foreigners worked for an American company) music has defined how they dress and speak
January 1993- set off from their village of Mogbwemo on a trip to the town of Mattru Jong for a friend's talent show visit the town of Kabati (Ishmael and Junior's grandmother's village)
Visit Mattru Jong (meet up with their friends Gibrilla, Kaloko, Khalilou) stay at …show more content…
Applies for visit to United Nations- his story is compelling enough to get him in

Chapter 20 shocked by how the city is compared to what he thought it’d be realizes wars and conflict stole other childhoods bonds with a storyteller, Laura Simms- invites the children to share their stories

Chapter 21 begins the school year but kids fear that he'll snap and hurt them
May 25, 1997 Ishmael wakes to gunfire and fears the civil war civilian government overthrown by a collaboration involving the RUF and military
Ishmael and his cousins stay inside
Ishmael and Mohammed go into town and are swept up in a mob protest hide in a nearby ditch
Uncle Tommy gets sick and dies realizes he must escape or he’d turn into a soldier

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Yossarian: Summary And Analysis
    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Yossarian: Summary And Analysis

    The second passage I chose was not about Yossarian’s character, though it may deal with how frustrated he finds his new roomates, but about the glamorization of war. “They were the most depressing group of people Yossarian had ever been with. They were always in high spirits. They laughed at everything. They called him ‘Yo-Yo’ jocularly and came in tipsy late at night and woke him up with their clumsy, bumping, giggling efforts to be quiet, then bombarded him with asinine shouts of hilarious good-fellowship when he sat up cursing to complain.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparison Of A Long Way Gone And The Hunger Games
    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparison Of A Long Way Gone And The Hunger Games

    War and conflict interfere with the lives of two survival-driven adolescents who will be seemingly scarred for life. Violence and death are forced upon both Ishmael and Katniss as they observe death and at one point they kill, causing them to slowly lose their innocence. After Ismael witnesses his friends murdered by the rebel group of Sierra Leone he says, “I raised my gun and pulled the trigger… Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war, started flashing in my head” (Beah, 145).…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace
    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

    From Lost Innocence to Gained Experience War does not only include army warfare, but also personal experiential wars. Feelings of fear, hostility and indignation dominate peacefulness; as we all identify rivals in the world around us and “pit ourselves” against them so as to have an object for hate. Personal or political wars may result ignorance in the human heart and result in inability to understand self and others. Furthermore, realities of life permeate and threaten peace in the world of youth as seen in the Devon School in A Separate Peace. War can hold strange parallels to sport as also in the Winter Carnival, and the atmosphere created can prevail in a time of war, along with the emotions, conflicts, and jealousy that can result…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Left Behind Book Summary
    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Left Behind Book Summary

    LaHaye and Jenkins first novel Left Behind was published by Tyndale in 1995 with over three million copies sold in the series. It’s set in what appears to be modern day 1995. Left Behind is a story of transformation, faith, and salvation. When people all over the world suddenly disappear the world goes into complete shock and chaos. While also reflecting on the losses of loved ones and new achieved religion.…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    War Ishmael Dialectical Journal
    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages

    War Ishmael Dialectical Journal

    11/25 I stopped my reading for one day to relax my mind; I was unconsciously effected by the war Ishmael was in. I detested the rebel who killed his family, friends, and country. The war between the government and the rebels ruined the citizens peaceful lives. Families were separated, and children were brought to fright against their friend in different sides. Most children who became a soldier were either killed others or be killed by others, for most of them turned to be indifference, addicted with drugs, and killed more people for the joy of violence; Ishmael was one of them.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Mighty Martha Analysis
    • 1871 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Mighty Martha Analysis

    As Sofia is walking to school, we are introduced to "Mighty Martha", a pillar of the village's community. Martha "was the only famous person ever to be born in the village. She had won an Olympic silver medal for throwing the discus over twenty years before". This tells us that Martha is one of the most important people in the village. She is clearly a strong character, as she managed to receive a silver medal for throwing the discus.…

    • 1871 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Mighty Long Way Essay
    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Mighty Long Way Essay

    A mighty long way essay In the book a Mighty long Way it tells the story about a girl named Carlotta and her peers starting an all white school. When they first started they got picked on and they got yelled at and hit with spitballs. During this book we learned about the segregation and there journey about how Carlotta and her peers made it through the change. In the book Carlotta went through some hard times when she first started the school she had to be escorted in for almost 2 years because the students didn’t think it was right for them to go to the all white school.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Separate Peace Persuasive Essay
    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Separate Peace Persuasive Essay

    Every teenager is looking forward to become an adult. Each of them wants to have a house, drive a car, have a family, achieve goals and be independent. Finally, when it’s time for growing up, they understand that, despite all this advantages, there are responsibilities, problems and dilemmas, which have to be solved without anyone’s help. This makes children get scared; they refuse to move on and try to stay as a child as long as they can. Nearly every adult has experienced this fear and harshness of life during growing up and John Knowles greatly visualizes and explains it in his novel, A Separate Peace.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Long Way Gone
    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Long Way Gone

    In the novel A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, we are given a glimpse into the life of a child that is trying to make his way in life during a time of war. While Beah does lose his family, home and childhood, he also loses his sense of safety and belonging. During the war, people from different villages continue to flee from the rebels that are constantly conquering villages, slaughtering the villagers like cattle. As the villages are broken down and conquered, boys are taken from their families and are enlisted into the war by both the rebel forces and the army. These boys are then brainwashed and transformed into tools of destruction as they fight alongside the men that seek to kill the opposing force.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Importance Of The Tallmadge Amendment
    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Importance Of The Tallmadge Amendment

    In the year 1819, there was a balance of power within the nation because there were exactly 11 free states and 11 slave states. Missouri, however, wanted statehood, which created problems because that would make the balance of power unequal. James Tallmadge, Jr. proposed what came to be known as the “Tallmadge Amendment,” which disallowed slaves’ owners from bringing new ones into Missouri, and also allowed children of slaves to be freed when they turned 25. This was approved by the House of Representatives, where the Northerners had a majority, but rejected by the Senate. Maine came into this situation when they wanted to be their own state, requesting to be in the Union.…

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Inside Out And Back Again Essay
    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Inside Out And Back Again Essay

    The book ''Inside out and Back Again'' by Thanhha Lai, relates to the universal experience of fleeing and finding a home. Many refugees, including the character Ha from the book ''Inside Out and Back Again'', go through a lot of sadness and worries because of war, or any reason for fleeing. '' Inside Out'' which is the first half of the title, means a turn of events in someone's life, or something bad is awaiting. ''Back Again'' the second half of the title, shows how someone or in Ha's case, her family can get their lives partially normal, or how it was before. It is never easy for a refugee to flee, let alone find a new home, and get their life on track, we see this, especially through Ha's experience.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparison Of Leper And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles
    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparison Of Leper And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

    Imagine what it would be like to live during a world war, and the internal and external conflicts one must face because of it. In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The boys at the Devon school deal with war in their everyday lives. Both of the characters Leper and Finny are forced to face the reality of world war II in different ways. Leper and Finny’s experiences with war impact each significantly, although both result in a major loss of innocence. Leper’s naivety about what it would be like to enlist was the beginning of his downfall.…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Controversial Themes In Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers
    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Controversial Themes In Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers

    The terrors of the Vietnam War has always frightened the people into hiding. Afraid of facing death in the eye or having your friend die in your arms. But what if there was more to the war then meets the eye? What if you were your own worst enemy? In the novel, Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers uses both the setting and time period to explore controversial topics.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Kindness And Cruelty In Timothy Findley's 'The Wars'
    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Kindness And Cruelty In Timothy Findley's 'The Wars'

    The very nature of war creates many contrasts. One such contrast, the opposing pair of kindness and cruelty, is demonstrated in many instances throughout Timothy Findley’s The Wars. There are three notable cases of the duality of these two opposing ideas: Robert and the horse with the injured leg, Robert in the gas attack, and Rodwell and his personality. War creates a contrast between kindness and cruelty.…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Violence In A Long Way Gone
    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Violence In A Long Way Gone

    The Sierra Leonean Civil War from 1991 to 2001 affected every citizen of Sierra Leone, including children. Ishmael Beah is a man who was caught in the war as a child, and forced to both witness and commit acts of violence as a child soldier, as expressed in his memoir. The role of violence in the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is to portray the theme of loss of innocence through the comparisons and contrasts of violent acts while Ishmael was running from the rebels, during his time as a child soldier, and after his experience in the Sierra Leonean army. The role of violence is first shown through the comparison of Ishmael as he is running from the rebels to the families who are trying to escape the war and stopping in the mining area…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings