A Long
Way Gone
by Ishmael Beah (provided for 12th grade level 1 and level 2
students and 9th grade honors history students)
Note: This book is also being used by our history department as a required reading for students entering ninth grade honors, level zero.
In A LONG WAY GONE: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a powerfully gripping story: At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels in hid home country of Sierra Leone, and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.
This is an extraordinary and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty. (Amazon)
P R A I S E F O R A LONG WAY GONE
“A Long Way Gone is a wrenching, beautiful, and mesmerizing tale. Beah’s amazing saga provides a haunting lesson about how gentle folks can be capable of great brutalities as well as goodness and courage. It will leave you breathless.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Ishmael Beah came to the United States when
he was seventeen. A 2004 graduate of Oberlin College, he is now a member of
Human Rights Watch Children’s Division Advisory Committee and has spoken
before the United Nations on several occasions. He lives in New York City.
“A Long Way Gone
is one of the most important war stories of
our generation. The arming of children is among the greatest evils of the
modern world, and yet we know so little about it because the children
themselves are swallowed up by the very wars they are forced to wage.
Ishmael Beah has not only emerged intact from this chaos, he has become one
of its most eloquent chroniclers. We ignore his message at our peril.”
—Sebastian Junger, author of
A Death in Belmont
and
The Perfect Storm
“This is a beautifully written book. Ishmael
Beah describes the unthinkable in calm, unforgettable language; his memoir
is an important testament to the children elsewhere who continue to be
conscripted into armies and militias.”
—Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars:
The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet
Invasion to September 10, 2001
*Note: Portions of
some descriptions, and in some cases, entire descriptions taken from
Amazon.com and / or ReadingGroupGuides.com and Globalliteracyproject.com
A Long Way Gone Reading guide from www.alongwaygone.com (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC). This website also offers excellent, downloadable conversations with the author.
A LONG WAY GONE
by Ishmael Beah
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
“Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary
voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of
war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide.”
—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
Accelerated
The questions and discussion topics that follow are designed to enhance your reading of Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone. We hope they will enrich your experience as you explore his inspiring, infinitely valuable story.An estimated 300,000 child soldiers now fight in the more than fifty violent conflicts raging around the globe. Far removed from the world of pundits and journalists, policymakers and diplomats, a thirteen-year-old boy named Ishmael Beah became one of these young warriors in Sierra Leone. Now in his mid-twenties, he courageously tells of the horrific road that led him to wield an AK-47 and, fueled by trauma and drugs, commit terrible acts. A Long Way Gone brings a rare voice of frontline realism to a widely publicized (and widely misunderstood) human-rights crisis.
Guide provided by: SARAH CRICHTON B O O K S / FA R R A R , S T R AU S A N D G I
Themes, Ideas and Issues (Connections)
As you read the
memoir, explore the following themes, ideas and issues that connect to the
Marshfield High School senior English curriculum.
The wording of some of these themes comes from a study-guide found at
http://www2.nau.edu/~d-ugstdy/summer-reading/studyguide08.doc
The effect of the group on the individual
The effect of loneliness on the individual
The effect that propaganda and the manipulation of thought have on the individual
The breakdown of civilization
The conflict between the individual and society
The search for meaning amongst chaos
The role that story telling plays on cultural identity
The role that family plays in shaping the individual
Understanding loss and suffering
Understanding death, life and living
The role that friendship plays in shaping the individual
The effect of hatred, enmity and revenge
The human capacity for forgiveness, compassion and goodness
The duality of man
The role of happiness on the individual psyche
The capacity of the human spirit
The quest for survival
The hero’s journey (Growth, Growing up)
The effect of governments and politics on the individual
cultural awareness, boundaries, permeability
leaders, followers, leading, following
The power and importance of our memories
The effect of the present on the past and the future
Understanding man’s place in nature and the natural world
Be ready to discuss A Long Way Gone as it relates to other countries and current affairs.
In poignantly clear and dauntless storytelling, Ishmael describes how he fled brutal rebel soldiers, traveling miles from home on foot and gradually being reduced to a life of raw survival instincts. Yet, unlike so many of his peers, Ishmael lived to reclaim his true self, emerging from Sierra Leone as the gentle, hopeful young man he was at heart. His memoir is at once crucial testimony for understanding the tragedy of contemporary war zones, and a testament to the power of peacemakers.
1. How familiar were you with the civil wars of Sierra Leone prior to reading A Long Way Gone? How has Ishmael’s story changed your perception of this history, and of current wars in general?
2. Chapter seven begins with the story of the imam’s death, followed by Ishmael’s recollections of his father and an elder blessing their home when they first moved to Mogbwemo. How do the concepts of faith and hope shift throughout this memoir? What sustains Ishmael emotionally and spiritually?
3. Chapter eight closes with the image of villagers running fearfully from Ishmael and his friends, believing that the seven boys are rebels. How do they overcome these negative assumptions in communities that have begun to associate the boys’ appearance with evil? What lessons could world leaders learn from them about overcoming distrust, and the importance of judging others individually rather than as stereotypes?
4. What did Ishmael’s parents teach him about being a man? How did he define manhood once he began his long walk west? What general life lessons were his parents able to teach him that sustained him during his brutal passage from boyhood, and that he carries with him to this day?
5. Discuss the role of American hip-hop culture in creating a “soundtrack” for Ishmael’s life. Why are rappers so appealing to him?
6. The boys’ discovery of the Atlantic Ocean and their encounter with a cheerful fisherman who heals and feeds them is followed by the tragedy of Saidu’s death after a bird falls ominously from the sky. Discuss Ishmael’s relationship with the natural world. In what way is he guided by the constancy of the earth and sky?
7. When Ishmael arrives at the fortified village of Yele in chapter twelve, what do you discover about the way he began his military career? Was his service, and that of his equally young friends, necessary? What made his conscription different from that of drafted American soldiers serving in previous wars?
8. Ishmael tells us that some of the boys who had been rehabilitated with him later became soldiers again. What factors ensured that he could remain a civilian?
9. Storytelling is a powerful force in Ishmael’s life, even providing a connection to his future mother, Laura Simms. What traits make Ishmael a memorable and unique storyteller? How does his perspective compare to the perspectives of filmmakers, reporters, or other authors who have recently tried to portray Africa’s civil wars?
10. Ishmael describes his use of Krio and many tribal languages to communicate, as well as his ability to quote Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English. What communities and empires are represented in his many speech styles? In which “villages,” from the relatively new UN to the centuries-old Mende and Temne settlements, does the greatest wisdom lie?
11. How does Ishmael’s concept of family change throughout the memoir, from his early life in Mattru Jong, to the uncle with whom he is reunited, to his American family with Laura?
12. It takes many weeks before Ishmael feels comfortable with the relief workers’ refrain that these events are not his fault. What destructive beliefs had he become addicted to? What states of deprivation and euphoria had his body become addicted to?
13. What universal truths does Ishmael teach us about surviving loss and hunger, and overcoming isolation?
14. Ishmael’s dramatic escape during the later waves of revolution concludes with the riddle of the monkey. Is his dream of obliterating the monkey—and its violent endgames—closer to being fulfilled in these early years of the twenty-first century? What would it take for all of humanity to adopt Ishmael’s rejection of vengeance?
15. Ishmael gives credit to relief workers such as Esther, in conjunction with organizations such as UNICEF, for rescuing him. He has dedicated his life to their cause, studying political science and speaking before a broad variety of groups, ranging from the Council on Foreign Relations to the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities at the Marine Corps War fighting Laboratory. What steps has he inspired you to take to help end the use of child soldiers? How can each of us join Ishmael’s cause?
16. After reading the chronology of Sierra Leone’s history, what reasons can you propose for the coups in Ishmael’s homeland? Did the arrival of Portuguese slave traders, or the later colonization by the British, contribute to Sierra Leone’s twentieth century woes? What did you discover about the motivations of the army soldiers versus those of the rebels? In your opinion, what made the leaders of the RUF so ruthless for so long?
Back to Summer Reading homepage
