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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah Name: Period: Date: Directions: Choose three prompts and answer completely. Be sure to note which questions you are answering. Each essay is worth 30 points. 1. When first captured by the rebels, Beah and his friends are told, “We are going to initiate all of you by killing these people in front of you. We have to do this to show you blood and make you strong” (34). What do the rebels mean by this? Is it effective? Why or why not? 2. After a failed attempt to get food, Beah says, “we had made a logical decision and it had come to this. It was a typical aspect of being in the war.” Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything” (29). What other examples from the book illustrate Beah’s point? Can logic exist in war? 3. When Beah was initially captured, he says, “I used the only freedom that I had then, my thought. They couldn’t see it” (33). Does Beah retain this freedom throughout the story? Explain your answer using examples from the text. 4. After being detained by a village because they were suspected of being rebels, Beah and his friends are released, and he says they “laughed about what had happened to avoid crying” (68). What does this mean? How might this be a protective strategy? 5. When describing life after the war starts, Beah states, “one of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally,

A Long Way Gone Essay Prompts

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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy SoldierIshmael Beah

Name:

Period:

Date:

Directions: Choose three prompts and answer completely. Be sure to note which questions you are answering. Each essay is worth 30 points.

1. When first captured by the rebels, Beah and his friends are told, “We are going to initiate all of you by killing these people in front of you. We have to do this to show you blood and make you strong” (34). What do the rebels mean by this? Is it effective? Why or why not?

2. After a failed attempt to get food, Beah says, “we had made a logical decision and it had come to this. It was a typical aspect of being in the war.” Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything” (29). What other examples from the book illustrate Beah’s point? Can logic exist in war?

3. When Beah was initially captured, he says, “I used the only freedom that I had then, my thought. They couldn’t see it” (33). Does Beah retain this freedom throughout the story? Explain your answer using examples from the text.

4. After being detained by a village because they were suspected of being rebels, Beah and his friends are released, and he says they “laughed about what had happened to avoid crying” (68). What does this mean? How might this be a protective strategy?

5. When describing life after the war starts, Beah states, “one of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I felt that I was starting over and over again” (69). How is this description of life in a war state similar to a description of an average teenager’s life? How is it different? Illustrate your answer with examples.

6. After going through another frightening ordeal, Saidu says, “every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies” (70). What does this mean? How is this relevant to Beah’s experience as a soldier?

7. While describing his life as a soldier, Beah says, “my mind had not only snapped during the first killing, it had also stopped making remorseful records, or so it

Page 2: A Long Way Gone Essay Prompts

seemed” (122). What does he mean by this? What elements of his soldier life would contribute to his lack of thought about what was happening?

8. Beah talks about discussing Shakespeare with his lieutenant. Some people might consider the act of discussing literature to be ironic in a war state. Can there be culture in war? What does culture mean in this context?

9. The staff at the rehabilitation facility keep telling Beah and the other child soldiers that “it’s not your fault [ . . . ]after [they] had done things they considered wrong and not childlike” (145). Why does this infuriate Beah and the other children so much? What does this say about their state of mind?