A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier Analysis

Words: 704
Pages: 3
Open Document
“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, by Ishmael Beah, is a non-fiction novel that describes the personal accounts of the author when he was a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War. It provides an interpretation of military life in West Africa while analyzing the use of child soldiers during an era of great conflict, as well as today. The general purpose of the novel is to inform the audience on the state of Africa as a whole, and to push the world into a more caring a charitable society to help areas in need, specifically developing nations like Sierra Leone. The author achieves this by using stylistic elements such as imagery, symbolism and comparison/contrast, which all contribute to the overall narrative.
Throughout the …show more content…
Once the author begins to discuss life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone military, he compares and contrasts it with his experiences evading the Rebels. This is most commonly seen when he explains the cruel nature of the military, which is very similar to that of the Rebel Army. He also contrasts the differences for which both sides use the cruel tactics, being that the military justifies their violence with the defense of their country; “We are not like the rebels, those riffraffs who kill people for no reason. We will kill them for the good and betterment of this country.” page 123. This use of parallelism provides a better understanding of the horrific state of warfare in West Africa by explaining how the government-run army is equally as brutal as the Rebels. This is designed to create sympathy among the audience and a desire to see their government improve for the overall good of humanity.
In conclusion, Ishmael Beah uses multiple stylistic elements in “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” to enhance his purpose of informing the audience of the cruel conditions in West Africa while persuading them to want a change to occur. Specifically he implements detailed imagery, symbolism and comparison/contrast to get his point across. Through the utilization of these stylistic elements Beah presents a first-hand interpretation of being a child soldier during a time of conflict that compels the audience
Show More

Related Documents: A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier Analysis

Civil War Essay

close at hand. Speeches, made up on the spot or carefully crafted for the world to read, told stories that placed blame and laid out strategies. Newspaper articles written overnight shaped fragments and reports into narratives of victory and loss. Memoirs, short stories, novels, and histories written months or years later wove new patterns of storytelling. Whatever their origins or timing, all these stories tell more than appears on the surface. They speak, often in spite of themselves, of larger…

Words 4865 - Pages 20

US Government Censorship During The Vietnam War

Through out the war, however, many things stood in the US' way that led to the extraction of the troops. The United States government was slapped with activists and protests that were anti-war; these activists were angered by not only the war but the government's infringement on the truth with silly censorships…

Words 2189 - Pages 9