chapter names

Chapter 2 - a night haunting
In this chapter Ishmael is woken up by a nightmare reflecting on his past life as a boy soldier. This is the first gruesome glimpse the reader gets of his chilling past and how it still disturbs Ishmael.

Chapter 6 - Farewell my Friend
In this chapter Ishmael is separated from his brother Junior. This is the last time he ever sees his brother and is a heart wrenching point in the book were Ishmael begins to feel alone. He never had the chance to say goodbye to Junior and I think that is a great injustice.

Chapter 8 - Forest Friends
Ishmael finds himself wandering alone in the forest for the majority of this chapter. He begins to get increasingly lonely and wishes to be with other people. After he gets attacked by a hog he runs into some old friends from school and decides to travel with them. He finds friends in a forest.

Chapter 9 - Dance or Die
In this chapter Ishmael saves his new friends from being killed by dancing to hip hop music for the tribe leader to prove who they are. Dance or Die is also a song by Family Force Five which is a hip hop band.

Chapter 10 - Carselio
Carselio is a word meaning spider. In this chapter Musa tells his last story about a spider and then dies. the boys are devastated by the loss of their friend and his stories that would distract them from the troubled lives they lived. The chapter should name should be dedicated to his last story.

Chapter 11 - Hope is dead
Through out the book Ishmael has survived on the hope of seeing his family again. In chapter 11 however that dream is crushed when his family is killed by the rebels. Ishmael is left in despair and more alone then he has ever felt before.

Chapter 12 - Trapped
In chapter 12 Ishmael decides to join the army and fight against the rebels. However i would argue that he was trapped in a situation and being apart of the army was the only way out. if he did not join the army he would be killed by the rebels surrounding the village that he was staying in.

Chapter 15 - Gangs of Sierra Leone
Ishmael and a few of his friends are taken out of the army and placed into a compound with other boy soldiers. Upon finding out that the other boys fought for the rebels Ishmael and his friends attack. This scene reminded me of Gangs of New York. i thought the gang wars were irrational and unnecessary because both sides just wanted the same thing - survival and revenge.

Chapter 16 - Rambo: the side effects
While Ishmael in the the hospital he has a flash back of being a Jr. lieutenant of the army. In the flash back his friend Alhaji goes and slits the guards throats of the village they are attacking. Alhaji calls this his "Rambo moves". I think this chapter shows just how impressionable the boys were and how the proper propaganda can really change a person from being sick at the sight of blood to egging on your friend to brutally murder people and join in.

Chapter 21 - A New Hope
In this chapter Ishmael goes back to New York to live with Laura. I see this chapter and a new beginning in his life which is filled with hope for the future and a positive out look on life which we have never seen before in Ishmael

Changed

Ishmael Beah’s book A Long Way Gone tells his life changing story of becoming a boy soldier and then being relieved of this heavy adult task. At the beginning of the book he is not attending school because his mother cannot afford it and spends his time doing talent show with his friends. He does not have any exclusive plans for his future or education. When the war starts and he is separated from his family his agenda is simple survive and find his family. However with his dreams of being reunites with his loved ones shattered, he joins the army to fight against the rebels. At first he is squeamish around his gun and gore and cannot bear to shoot kids his own age, “I lay there with my gun pointed at in front of me unable to shoot” (p117). Soon he becomes accustomed to the military lifestyle of drugs and violence. Ishmael decides he will fight with them till the end. He’s greatest dreams consist of finding better guns and killing strangers to survive. Then as he becomes content in his place his gun is taken away and he is sent to a refuge home for other boy soldiers. After Ishmael discovers the other boys fought on the rebels’ side a bloody and vital fight breaks out and the boys are transferred to the Benin home.
At the home he is put into rehab and slowly his reliance on drugs withers away and his thirst for violence fades. Instead he wishes for a companion to talk about his past with. He begins to wish that the nurse at the home was a girl from his village that he knew while attending school. His heart broken by the loss of his family and everyone he knew before. He cries out “I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for” (p 167). While Ishmael is at the brink of depression and despair, there is soon a change in him shown through his writing. While he is tells about his journey to New York for the conference he makes reference not always to his dark and grim past but to his future. He tells us that his friend Laura later offers him another winter coat but he refuses it because it is a female coat and at the end of chapter 20 Ishmael reveals that he later lives with Laura in New York. During his trip to New York Ishmael realizes that even though he had a horrible past there still is a future for him and he begins to be more optimistic.