Think about how Ishmael evolves over the course of the novel.
In a detailed response, explain the change that you see in Ishmael. Describe what he was like in the beginning of the memoir, what he was like once the war started, and what he was like after he was rescued. Use AT LEAST 2 quotations in your response that exhibit the characteristics you discuss in your response.
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In the beginning of the novel, Ishmael is growing up much like an innocent boy in Sierra Leone. He went to school with friends and even started a rap dance group with four of his friends. He was introduced to rap when he was in Mobimbi and saw a music video by the Sugarhill Gang.
ReplyDeleteIshmael’s friend Gibrilla said that rebels attacked the mining area and that their town would be next. They were told many people fled to search for their families and Talloi wanted to go back and search. During this time, they slept in abandoned villages and were always hungry. When they returned to Mattru Jong, it was unfamiliar to them. People had died and all of the houses had been looted. When they arrived in the town of Kamator, it was the last time Ishmael would see his brother, Junior.
Trying to escape from the fighting. he was constantly living in fear. “I became frustrated with living in fear. I felt as if I was always waiting for death to come for me.” (Beah 46) During this time, Ishmael was no longer an innocent child that had never experienced war. Now he was always frightened and could not trust anyone except his friends. When they lived in the village close to the ocean, they briefly returned to calmer, less chaotic times becoming children again as they celebrated their milestone of reaching a safe place. They did this by walking on the beach and playing soccer. However, that was very short lived because the villagers ran them out of the town. “The men yanked our torn crapes off our feet, untied us, and chased us out of their village, waving their spears and machetes, and screaming after us.” (Beah 60) They reached the village occupied by the Sierra Leone Army many days later and felt safe until the lieutenant had told them that they must leave the village or fight the rebels. Ishmael chose to fight the rebels. Ishmael was not accustomed to killing people until the lieutenant told them the rebels had killed their families. Ishmael then developed a hatred for the rebels and wanted to kill them. Ishmael also started using drugs like many of the other soldiers. Ishmael was no longer a carefree child he was more of a warrior.
When UNICEF came to rescue the child soldiers, Ishmael didn’t want to stop fighting. He was still violent during his rehabilitation. He befriended the nurse Esther and she always told him that it wasn’t his fault he was violent. He eventually believed the staff at Benin Home and gradually became less violent. When he went to New York City with the UN, he seemed to regain some of his childhood innocence.
Ishmael changes throughout the book by going through a scared child and then a becoming a blood thirst child. He is a a scared child when ever the rebels are after him and when he is in danger. But when the army recruits’ him he wants to kill all the the rebels he can because he’s angry. ‘we took the guns and ammunition off the bodies of my friends and left them in the forest, which had taken on a life of its own as it tapped the souls that had departed from the dead.’-119 Ishmael beah. After he was rehabilitated he was back to normal he was living an average life with his uncle.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah is very different in the beginning of the novel than the end. In the beginning Ishmael is a normal boy that lives with his family and goes to school. He lives in a town that has not necessarily been affected by the war, but he has been to other cities and seen part of it. Once Ishmael has been separated he eventually finds himself fighting in the war. Once he is in the war he begins to do drugs and enjoy fighting to avenge his parents’ death. In one part of the book the corporal says, “Visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for all that is happened to you.”(Beah 112) This proves that the officers tried to make the soldiers mad so they would fight better. During this time Ishmael was always mad and killed people all the time. After he is taken from the war to be rehabilitated he finally calms down because he talks with a woman called Esther. Once he said this about her, “I had become very fond of Esther, but refused to show it.”(Beah 168) This is the reason he changes back to being a normal human. As you can see Ishmaels life is very different from the beginning of the war to the end.
ReplyDeleteNeal Tolbert
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the book he is just a normal teenager he goes to school and has fun with his friends; he also liked to run around, play games with his friends, and sing rap music. At the beginning of the war he is very scared of the rebels and just keeps running in hope that his family is still alive somewhere. But as he goes on he trusts no one he sees and becomes very cautious of his actions. “This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy.” Ishmael Beah (A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier). After running for months he finally decides to join the army and revenge his families’ death after the war catches back up with him. “They had run so far away from the war, only to be caught back in it. There is nowhere to go from here.” Ishmael Beah (A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier). He then finds killing, doing drugs, and violent movies to be his life he gets everything from the army and accepts the army as his “family”. But after all of this he starts to make friends with people and become reunited with the life outside of war how to be nice and care for others. And he becomes rehabilitated after the war and the loss of his real family.
Ishmael, his brother, and a few friends were walking to a different village to perform a talent show. The talent show was that they would dance to rap music on a cassette. He and his friends were just kids when the RUF attacked the country. I was surprised that they made it by themselves. When they returned to their home village they couldn’t find their parents. They had no choice but to go to other villages.
ReplyDeleteI see how he gets more mature through the story because he depends and a few friends to find shelter and get food. During the time of war, the rebels would get all the children out of the village and pick the strong children to become a rebel. That is the reason why no one trusted visitors in their village, so every time Ishmael and his friends go to a village, they get captured. “This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes and enemy.” Ishmael said that because people couldn’t trust one another. To eat they would have to steal innocent people’s food because they were starving. “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which triggers memories from the past.” Ishmael. This was at the beginning of the book when he was young.
When Ishmael and his friends joined the army because they got food. They were superior to the towns people and they got drugs, food, and protection. This is when he realizes this is what he had to do. You have to be mature and brave to join the army. The army showed them how to kill and take revenge on people. They told everyone that the ones who you are killing are the ones who killed your family. Ishmael then learned and enjoyed to kill.
When he got to the rehabilitation center, he knew nothing else but war. It took a long time for that to fade away and realize that it wasn’t his fault and that he should not take revenge on other people. That was the final maturing point throughout the book.
Ishmael is a very different person in the beginning of the book. In the beginning he was a normal boy who went to school, lived with his family, and just had a normal life. Then suddenly, the rebels started attacking the villages and Ishmael’s life changed forever. He fled for his life and searched for his family. He had to find his own food, find his own place to sleep, and he had to stay hidden at all times. Eventually, the army found him and got him to join them. They gave him drugs, offered him some kind of family, and gave him food and shelter. He became a blood thirsty killer like all the rest of the boys. He was forced to do anything the general told him to do. Then after months of this he was found by people who were willing to help him change. They took him to a rehabilitation center along with some of the other boys. He opened up to one of the women and changed completely. He went back to living a normal life with his uncle.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah is a completely different person by the end of the book. At the beginning of the book he is just a normal boy who enjoys listening to rap music and hanging out with his brother. Then when he went to talent show in another town he didn't expect it to be the last time he saw his parents and home. He began stealing food just to keep from starving to death. Next thing he knows he is fighting in a war and doing drugs. They used movies like rambo to encouraging the boys to kill."Sometime I am going to take a whole village by myself like rambo."(Beah 122) They wanted the boys to have no mercy on anybody and feel no remorse. "We must kill them all."(Beah 108) Ishmael was taken out of the war an put into a rehabilitation center and did recover but he would always have the memories of being part of a horrible war.
ReplyDeleteIshmael transforms into an entirely different person during this novel. He starts out as a young boy who thoroughly enjoys playing soccer and listening to music. Along with his friends, Ishmael forms a rap dance group and goes to a town called Mattru Jong to perform their dances. While they were there, they were warned that soldiers were attacking villages and that they were coming for their village next. They ran from Mattru Jong to their town to see if their families had survived. When they arrived they were devastated. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was as if it was an entirely new town, they couldn’t recognize a single thing. Eventually they get caught by the rebels and Ishmael is forced to join the army. From then on Ishmael dramatically changes. He gets a thrill when killing others and gets addicted to drugs. The war brain washed his mind and made him think differently. After a little over two years, the day came when his duties as a soldier was over. “You have been great soldiers and you all know that you are part of this brotherhood. I am very proud to have served my country with you boys. But your work here is done, and I must send you off. These men will put you in school and find you another life.” (Beah 129) They were taken to the UNCIEF where they would rehabilitate. After months being in the UNCIEF, Ishmael’s uncle offers him to stay. “After you are done here, you can come and live with me. You are my son. I don’t have much, but I will give you a place to sleep, food, and my love.” (Beah 172) He goes and stays with his uncle who ends up dying. He goes to New York with the UN and falls in love with it. Eventually he moves to New York where he and his life changed for the better.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah was just an innocent boy living in Sierra Leone in the time of a war. Ishmael changed alotthroughout the book. He was only 12 living in a small village in Sierra Leone with his father, brother, and stepmother. Ishmael had a love for music. He discovered music when he went on a trip to Mobimbi with his brother and their friends, they even started a rap gang. One day Ishmael and Junior, his older brother, went to Mattru Jong to participate in a talent show. While they were there rebels attacked their village and destroyed their home. They waited in Mattru Jong to see if they could find their family. Eventually they had to leave Mattru Jong because the rebels attacked. Ishmael, Junior, and their friends escaped but they didnt know where they were going. Later in the book Ishmael got seperated from his brother and his friends during an attack. Now Ishmael was all by himself with nothing at all. The only thing that kept him going was his family, but then he found out they were dead. After he found out that is parents were dead he joined the army and became a ruthless killer who did nothing but kill, do drugs, and watch violent movies.
ReplyDeleteIshmael was taken from the army and put into a rehab centerto recover. On the first day a fight broke out and Ishmael pulled a grenade out of his pocket and said " Do you boys want this to be your last meal..."(Beah 133), this shows how violent he was. While Ishmael was at rehab he learned to forgive himself with the help of the staff and his nurse Esther. It took him a long time to trust her and even to tell her his name. One day she was examining him and saw scars on his legs. She asked what they were and he said normally,"Bullet Wounds"(Beah 154), like it didnt even bother him. Finally afetr a long time in rehab Ishmael forgave himself for everything he had done. During the book, Ishmael went from being a normal boy, to being a ruthless killing child soldier, then back to a normal boy with lots of help, time, and care.
Ishmael Beah was like any other average kid. He loved music and even started a dance group with his brother and friends. While on their way to perform, rebels attacked the town in which Ishmael lived. Ishmael and his friends had no choice but to flee from the rebels. They had to live on their own because people were frightened by them. " People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy." (Beah 37) Eventually, the army recruits Ishmael. He joins because they give him food and shelter. Ishmael also wants revenge for the wrongdoings that happened to him. He gets involved with drugs and kills people without emotion. The UNICEF came to rescue Ishmael and other child soldiers, but Ishmael still wanted to fight. During his rehabilitation, Ishmael became friends with a nurse named Esther. Esther helped him realize he was still a child because she always cared for him even when he was violent.She would also tell him, " it's not your fault." (Beah 160) Ishmael moved to New York once he was older to start a new life.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah was a normal boy who enjoyed doing normal things like playing games, listening to rap music, and with hanging outhis brother. He even went to school like a normal boy did. He was very normal untill he went to a talent show that changed his life forever. Ishmael never dreamed at that talent show would be the last time he ever saw his parents again. He was forced to steal food to survive. He was then forced to fight, where he learned to shoot guns and ultamently to kill peoeple. Ishmael also started using drugs while he was fighting. These were given to him by the people in the camps. They tried to get the boys excited about going and killing peolpe by making them watch the movie Rambo. Another way they did it was by telling the kids that this would avenge the loss of a loved one or family member. "The rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for all that has happened to you."(Beah 112) Once Ishmael had gotten out of the war and into the rehalilitation center he had already been brainwashed to only think about war and killing. It took a long time for him to open up but he finally did to one woman who changed his life and helped him recover from the bad things that he experianced in the war. The memories will never go away but he did eventually recover from the vilance and drug part of the experiance. he then moved back to the normal world to live with his uncle. "I don’t have much, but I will give you a place to sleep, food, and my love." (Beah 172)
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah was very different in the beginning of the book. He was just like every other young boy in Sierra Leone. He went to class, played and danced with friends. When the rebels started attacking and killing people Ishmael began to live in fear. Once the army captured and recruited Ishmael his attitude toward the war changed and he wanted to kill instead of hide from everyone. “If you see anyone without a head tie of this color, shoot him”-112. Once Ishmael was rescued by a woman named Esther, she helped Ishmael recover from the violence of the war by telling him it wasn’t his fault because he was only a child and didn’t know better. After the war was over Ishmael went to live with his uncle.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah in the beginning of the story was just like any other boy. He would play pranks and have fun with his friends. He went to a talent show with his friends in Mattru Jong. Ishmael meet up with some friends who got out of school early, because the teachers said, “This town will be next” (pg.9). An there Ishmael was shoot at and chased at with most of the people beside them getting shoot or blown up. Here is were Ishmael was experienced to extreme fear. He and his friends were living day to day hoping to find food to sustain their hunger. Ishmael turned into a survivalist. As time went on of doing the same thing which was to find food, water, and shelter they found life which was just a village that took them in and gave them the necessities of life. Here Ishmael did not find happiness, for he new what was to come. Again Ishmael by himself this time began being a survivalist. He went into exile in the forest where he said. “The most difficult part about being in the forest was the loneliness” (pg.52). He eventually made it out of the forest and meet with friend, but even when he meet people he was so used to being on his own that he wasn’t as happy as he should be. Ishmael and he others found the army, the ones fighting these rebels. He joined a became a ruthless killer and drug addict. This he became happy about to an extent because his army was his new family and he was given the necessities of life. Ishmael was then rescued and at first he was horrible abusing the staff members and talking bad to them. Even at first he was terrible to Esther, but after a while he began to open up to see that he need to change. He was given a home with a family who cared for him he began to be happy again like he used to. When the war came back into his like that same fear and violence came with it so he escaped and is happy just like used to be. So I guess you could say that Ishmael Beah was a boy who went from good to the worst to back good again.
ReplyDeleteIshmael Beah was a regular person in the beginning of this book.he liked to do normal things with his brother and friends.he loved rap music. "You down with OPP( yeah you know me)-38 This is one of the songs the listen to. After the rebels came that's when his life drastically changed. He would live in captivity for a long time. He was also frightened to go out because if he did he would have to hide and not get caught. Once he got caught they gavve the kids drugs and kinda offered them a fostered family. They didn't eat a lot so they had to find food for themselves. "We walked for long hours and stopped only to eat sardinesand corned beef with gari,sniff cocaine,brown brown, and take white capsules." -122 After they brain washed by making them watch rambo non stop the were blood thirsty. Luckily after he was rescued they took him to rehab, and he opened up to a lady and they fixed his problems and lived a normal happy life with his uncle.
ReplyDeleteishmael i not the same at the beginning and end of the book. ishmael changes a lot between the beginning and end.ant the beginning of the story he was just like any other boy that he knew. he loved to hang out with his friend. ishmael got out of school early one day because he had gotten shot at and chased during school. his life had suddenly changed when the rebels came. he was held in captivity for a while. ishmael would go outside he would have to hid from the rebels in order to not get caught. they had to steel food because nobody had any and they were starving. at the end ishmael ended up with a family who cared about him like he use to have before the war. ishmael went through a lot of trials in this time which forced him to change to survive.
ReplyDeleteI think that Ishmael changed from the beginning to the end, especially with how he viewed life. Foremost I think he changed that way after his rehabillitation, because before he was rehabillitated, from the amount of drugs he was on, and how used to killing he was, he had simply lost his care for life. "I remembered a tingling feeling in my spine, but I was too drugged to feel the pain, even though my foot began to swell." (p. 157) He was saying he was so drugged up that he didn't care if he lived or not, but that changed after his rehabillitation. He changed from all that mainly from the love of the nurses, especially from nurse Esther. Thats how I think he changed from beginning to end.
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