Shaan Malik: Theme

A Long Way Gone: Theme by Shaan Malik

A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, is a New York Times bestseller. It tells the author's own story as a teenager through the challenges of war in Sierra Leone. The story itself has various elements, including the theme, which can be difficult to come up with. The theme I chose for this book is: Whatever you can't forget, you can at least forgive. My reasoning is that Ishmael suffered a lot as a teenager. He lost many of his friends and family, including his very close older brother Junior, and eventually joins the war against the rebels who are mercilessly slaughtering innocent civilians and conquering numerous villages. Eventually, after two years of fighting, he is liberated by UNICEF and taken to Benin Home, where he learned to regain his humanity with the help of a nurse named Esther. Ishmael Beah learns to forgive himself for the numerous terrible acts he committed, and that's why I chose that theme for this amazing book.

Questions:
1. Do you agree with the theme? Why or why not?
2. Give one detail (a character or event) that fits the theme chosen above.
3. What event in your life can you connect to the theme of the story?
4. What is another possible theme for this story?
5.What is a historical event in the world that can relate to the theme? (Not including the war in Sierra Leone).
6. What terrible acts does Ishmael commit while serving in the war?
7. How does Ishmael learn to forgive himself at Benin Home?
8. Reflect on Ishmael's decisions in Benin Home in the book. Explain one decision that you think he should have changed in order to make his mental recovery easier.
9. Which characters helped Ishmael the most in Benin Home? Explain one action that the character took to help Ishmael.
10. Is a first person point of view the best way to express the theme and story of the book?

Setting - Benjamin Kinnie

"A Long Way Gone", a book by Ishmael Beah takes place in New York and in many places throughout Sierra Leone. The books starts off in New York where we meet Ishmael who feels secretive about his past and as a result doesn't tell his friends much about it. He tries to hid all the other information of his past from them. Next we find our self in Mogbwemo where Ishmael grew up. Here, the atmosphere feels warm and inviting at first but after the rebels attack, it quickly changes to a war torn area where everyone is scared for their lives. The book also takes place in Mattru Jong. A town in Sierra Leone where Ishmael goes after leaving Mogbwemo to participate in a friend's talent show with the rap group that Ishmael and his friends created. But before they get there, they visit the town of Kabati, Ishmael and Junior's grandmother's village, along the way. There, Mamie Kpana, as the grandmother is known, questions them about their schooling. The setting her is like an escape from the violence. Here they are relaxed and at peace for the moment. When they reach Mattru Jong they meet up with their friends, Gibrilla, Kaloko, and Khalilou. At this point in the book, Ishmael is happy that he's with his friends but he is still worried about the rebels. Later on in the story, Ishmael gets recruited by the rebels as a child solider in the village of Yele. Here the mood, is the horror of war as Ishmael and the other boys face an impossible decision. If they flee the protection of the village, they risk being killed by the rebels. If they refuse to fight for the army, they risk starvation. This shows that in times of war, people are forced to choose among horrible options that are often detrimental to someone else. It's kill or be killed, and Ishmael joins the army as his only chance of survival. Near the end of the book, the boys are taken by UNICEF men to a fenced compound in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. They are given food and beds with clean linens. They look at the beds as if they don't know what they are and they consume the food in seconds. Other groups of boy soldiers are there, and they begin fighting them until they realize that they, too, are from the army. Later, a group of boy soldiers from the RUF are brought in and a war between the groups breaks out. The MPs and nationals try to break up the fight, but Mambu overtakes them and steals a gun. He begins shooting rebels; six people are killed before more MPs arrive and break up the battle by force. The theme here is of confusion and fear returns when the boys are taken from their squad. Ishmael's journey out of the war makes him anxious and afraid. At the end of this book, Ishmael goes to New York to start his new life. Here he feels relived and worried. Relived as he no longer has to deal with war and worried because he still has the horrible memories of when he was a child soldier and all the horrible things he had to experience first hand.  

Setting Questions - Benjamin Kinnie

1. Where is the first setting in the book?
2. What is the atmosphere when Ishmael arrives in Mattru Jong?
3. Where does Ishmael's grandma live?
4. What friends does Ishmael meet when they arrive at Mattru Jong?
5. What is the village where the boys get recruited as child soldiers?
6. Who are the men that take the child soldiers to the rehabilitation center?
7. In what part of Sierra Leone is the rehabilitation center?
8. What other group of boys are brought to the camp that starts a war between the groups?
9. Who takes a gun and begins shooting rebels?
10. At the end of the book, where does Ishmael finally end up?

Shaan Malik Answers Questions

Answers:
Characters 6: Ishmael likes to listen to and dance to rap music.

Characters 9: The nurse's name is Esther. Esther knows about Ishmael's love for music and buys him a Bob Marley tape. She also takes him and his friend Alhaji to the city to sightsee.

Characters 10: Ishmael's best friends at the Benin Home in UNICEF are Alhaji, Mohammed, and Mambu.

Plot 1: The climax is when Ishmael's family is killed by the rebels and then he and his friends join the army to fight against the rebels.

Plot 2: The author uses first person point of view because he can efficiently tell his own story.

Plot 8: Ishmael has a bad relationship with his father because Ishmael lives with his mother. His parents are separated.

Setting 4: When Ishmael and his small group arrive in Mattru Jong, they meet their friends Gibrilla, Kaloko, and Khalilou.

Setting 5: The name of the village where the boys are recruited as soldiers is Yele.

Setting 6: The men who take Ishmael to the rehabilitation centre are from UNICEF.

Setting 7: The UNICEF compound is located in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Plot

Plot

By Asier Salazar

This book is about a 12 years old boy called Ishmael that lives in Sierra Leona. Ishmael,

his older brother and some friends have to run after his village is destroyed by the

rebels during the civil war. After they wander village by village searching for food and

shelter and hiding from the rebels, Ishmael becomes a soldier for the regular army

capable of killing and doing terrible things that he would never have thought about.

The boy soldiers become addicted to cocaine and marijuana, which help them to

not feel emotions, sorrow... Ishmael continues to fight for the army, until UNICEF

takes the boy soldiers to a rehab centre. There he struggles to forgive himself. With

the help, love and compassion of Esther, a nurse at the rehab center, he manages to

forgive himself and starts healing. While living with his uncle Tommy in the

outskirts of Freetown, he is selected to travel to New York and to speak to the United

Nations about his story. In New York he meets Laura Simms, who prepares him to tell

his story and explains him the importance of sharing his experience. After Ishmael

returns to Freetown, the RUF attacks the city killing his uncle. Beah becomes a refugee

and escapes to Guinea, where he contacts Laura. Eventually she adopts him and he

relocates to New York where he attends college.


Questions

1) When does the climax of the story occur?
2) Why does the author use first person point of view?
3) Why is so important the nurse for the outcome of the story?
4)Which would have been the outcome of the story if Ishmael wouldn't have been selected to travel to New York?
5) How does the antagonist influence the outcome of the story?
6) What would you have done if you were Ishmael, when he founds that his uncle is dead?
7) Why the rebels give the boy soldiers cocaine and marijuana?
8)Why Ishmael has a bad relationship with his father?
9) Why does the rebels mark the messengers with the letters "RUF"?
10) What have you learned from this story?

Characters-Rob Haddow

             There are many interesting characters in the book A Long Way Gone. Ishmael Beah is a 13 year old boy and the semi-leader of his group, he is also the author and narrator of the book. Junior is Ishmael's older brother and is very protective of him. Alhaji is a boy that is that Ishmael meets later on after is time in isolation, but they still become great friends and are even after the end if the book. Lieutenant Jabati is Ishmael's commanding officer during his time in the military, he reads and quotes Shakespeare very often. Laura Simms is a UN worker who adopts Beah after the resurgence of violence in Freetown. All these characters are quite in interesting and there are quite a few I would love to meet if given the chance.

Questions

1. What city does Ishmael Beah live in now and for what does he do for a living?
2. When is Ishmael's first encounter with the rebels and what happens? How does this change his character?
3. Which part of the UN does Laura Simms work for?
4. What decision does Lieutenant Jabati make which results in him losing Ishmael's trust? Why do you think he made it?
5. Which character holds the throat slitting contest? Why do you think he did it?
6. what type of music does Ishmael like to listen and dance to?
7. who does Ishmael go to live with in Freetown? how does he feel about it?
8. who was Ishmael's Commanding Officer? who ran his training?
9. Which nurse at the UNICEF compound gets close with Ishmael and considers him a brother? how does she get him to trust her? 
10. Who is Ishmael's best friend in the UNICEF compound?