A Long Way Gone Paradox Examples

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Humans, the most complex and intriguing mammal; they can be overfilled with kindness, but can also destroy down to nothing. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is no exception. In the novel, Ishmael goes through the toughest of times, and he is not sure how to process it. One day, he encounters the kindest people, but the following day the Rebels are killing and destroying everything around him. It is a vicious cycle that is hard to break. Many examples of this paradox are also present in articles such as “ Fish Cheeks,” “ The Company Man,” “Thirty- Eight Who Saw Murder and Didn’t Call the Police,” and “ Ambush.” For the human condition project, several pieces of textual evidence will be pulled from articles and the novel A Long Way Gone to exemplify paradox one.

Evidence that supports paradox one, which is focusing on both affection and cruelty, is found in the article “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. One instance that exemplifies this paradox is found in a noble scene when Amy’s mom is
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For instance, the quote “He worked himself to death” focuses on the second part of paradox one (Goodman). This particular quote shows that he worked hard for his company and would “be hard to replace” (Goodman). At the same time, he worked himself so hard, almost being harsh to his own well-being. Another example present in “ The Company Man” is a less obvious example. When Goodman is talking about the man’s daughter he mentions “She lives near her mother and they are close- alone with her father they had nothing to say” this quote has a meaning similar to paradox one (Goodman). The daughter was close and kind with her mother because she did not work all the time, but she felt like she had nothing to say to her father because of his work. Her actions were bitter to her father, who just wanted to provide for his family and do what he