A+LONG+WAY+GONE+-+Study+Guide

= “A Long Way Gone” Study Guide =

1. **Chapter 1:** How did Ishmael Beah’s grandmother explain the local adage that “we must strive to be like the moon” (p. 16)? And why has Ishmael remembered this saying ever since childhood? What does it mean to him?

2. What did the old man in Kabati mean when he said, “We must strive to be like the moon”? Is this advice that could apply to you? Why or why not?

3. As **Chapter 2** begins, we flash forward to Ishmael’s new life in New York City. He relates a dream of pushing a wheelbarrow. What is in the wheelbarrow, and where is he pushing it? What does Ishmael mean when he says, “I am looking at my own” (p. 19)?

4. Beah moves around in time as he tells his story, flashing forward and backward. What is the effect of this technique? Do you appreciate it, or would you prefer that he stuck to strict chronology? Why or why not?

5. “That night for the first time in my life,” writes Ishmael in **Chapter 3**, “I realized that it is the physical presence of people and their spirits that gives a town life” (p. 22). What prompts him to observe this? How old is he at the time? Also who are the five boys with whom Ishmael flees at the end of this chapter?

6. Why did the rebels attack the towns so fiercely? What was their goal? Does it make sense to you? (p. 24)

7. **Chapter 4:** Why, after their escape, do Ishmael and the other boys sneak back into the village of Mattru Jong?

8. In this chapter and the next, the boys steal food because they are starving. We usually consider this “acceptable” theft, but the boys stole from other people who didn’t have much food either. How do you judge what they did?

9. **Chapter 5:** Commenting on how a rebel soldier had interrogated an old man, Ishmael writes: “Before the war a young man wouldn’t have dared to talk to anyone older in such a rude manner. We grew up in a culture that demanded good behavior from everyone, and especially from the young” (p. 33). Where else in //A Long Way Gone //did you encounter the brutal, thuggish, or even sadistic behavior of young rebels—or of other young people?

10. When the rebels overtake Beah and his brother and friends, they submit them to two selection processes. Why? What were the rebels selecting for? What did they see in Beah and his brother, Junior.

11. In **Chapter 6**, how and why do Ishmael and his companions start farming in the village of Kamator? Why is farming so difficult for Ishmael?

12. On page 37, Beah writes, “This was one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy.” Can you relate to this feeling? If so, when and why have you felt that every stranger is an enemy?

13. Describe the role that music is playing in this story so far.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">14. **Chapter 7:** After Kamator has been attacked, and the two boys have been cut off from the others in fleeing, Ishmael and Kaloko sneak out of the bush and back into Kamator, bringing along brooms every time. Why do they bring brooms? And why, later, does Ishmael set out on his own?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">15. In chapter 7, Beah identifies his age as twelve years old. What were you doing when you were twelve years old? You were probably in middle school. Imagine being on your own at that point in your life.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">16. **Chapter 8:** What does Ishmael tells us was the “most difficult part of being in the forest” (p. 52)? And who are the six boys Ishmael encounters after wandering and surviving in the forest on his own for more than a month? Where does he know some of these boys from?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">17. Was Beah better off on his own or with the group of boys he found in this chapter? Explain your answer.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">18. Beah reminisces about his family while he is alone. He looks for medicinal leaves his grandfather showed him, for the soapy leaves he discovered during a summer with his grandmother, and thinks about the story of the wild pigs his grandmother told him. He remembers that his father used to say, “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.” Did these thoughts help Beah or make him more lonely and depressed? What makes you think so?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">19. **Chapter 9:** Who is the anonymous man with the fishing hut near the ocean, and how does he help to soothe and heal the severely scalded feet of Ishmael and the others? And later, how are the lives of all seven boys saved by rap music—specifically the music of LL Cool J?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">20. Why did the man with the fishing hut help the boys after the villagers stole their shoes and their feet burned?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">21. How did the boys avoid death when the villagers on the coast found them? Is Beah developing a theme? What is it?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">22. **Chapter 10:** Describe the “name-giving ceremony” (p. 75) that Ishmael recollects his grandmother <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">telling him about. Who attended this ceremony, and what did it entail in the way of preparation, purpose, ritual, and food? Also, what do we learn in Chapter ten of the various backgrounds of Ishmael’s companions? And how does Saidu die?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">23.On page 70, Saidu, one of the boys says, “How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?” He goes on to say, “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. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am.” The old saying is that that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Are there some things that just kill us slowly instead of building our strength? Explain your answer.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">24. What is the usefulness and significance of a story like Bra Spider to the culture that tells and retells it?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">25. What is the significance of Beah’s name-giving ceremony? Why does he share that story at this point in the book?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">26. **Chapter 11:** Who is Gasemu? Why does Ishmael befriend him and then later try to strangle <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">him?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">27. Why does Beah take his anger out on Gasemu? Does Gasemu deserve it at all? What is the significance of this shift in Beah’s demeanor?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">28. **Chapter 12:** At the village of Yele, a pivotal shift in this memoir begins when Ishmael goes from being an observer and victim of savage, war-triggered violence to being both of these things as well as a perpetrator of such violence. How does this shift happen? Do Ishmael and his companions have any choice in making it?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">29. Who do you believe killed the man and the boy who decided to leave the village? Was it the rebels or the soldiers, in order to make a point? Explain your answer.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">30. What is the significance of Beah’s music being destroyed in this chapter?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">31. The boys were trained to be soldiers with this mantra: //Visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you.// Why was this training so effective?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">32. In **Chapter 13**, the boy soldiers are given white tablets by their army superiors. What are these? Why they being handed out?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">33. Why did the army get the child soldiers hooked on drugs?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">34. Describe the transformation that happens to Beah on pages 118-120.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">35. **Chapter 14:** What do Ishmael and the other boy soldiers do when they’re not out on a mission? What movies do they like to watch, and why? What else to they do with their spare time? At one point, the lieutenant tells them, “We are not like the rebels, those riffraffs who kill people for no reason” (p. 123). Is this true? Also, why is Ishmael promoted to junior lieutenant? How did he achieve this new rank?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">36. Why did the army attack villages in its own country? Was their motive/strategy any different from the rebels? How?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">37. The corporal always said (p. 124), “This gun is your source of power in these times. It will protect you and provide you all you need, if you know how to use it well.” Does this line remind you of aspects of American culture today? Is this statement true sometimes and under some circumstances? Explain. (//This could also be a writing assignment.//)

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">38. Also from page 124: “We were always either at the front lines, watching a war movie, or doing drugs.” Why? Does this line have anything to teach us about American teenagers and their vulnerabilities?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">39. Describe the contest Beah wins in order to be promoted to junior lieutenant. Try to describe the things that are motivating Beah at this point in the story.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">40. As **Chapter 15** begins, a dreadful, nightmarish routine is, by now, firmly in place—“In my head my life was normal,” Ishmael writes (p. 126). How long has he been a soldier? And what happens to Ishmael and Alhaji, and a few other select boys, in the town of Bauya? Where are they taken, and by whom?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">41. On page 128, the soldiers start singing the Sierra Leone national anthem. The words Beah reprints are “High we exalt thee, realm of the free, great is the love we have for thee…” Why does he include that line in his story? If most countries, despite evidence to the contrary, consider themselves free, what exactly does it mean to live as a free person in a free country? Does the U.S. meet that standard?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">42. Does it surprise you that Beah spends a relatively small portion of the book describing his time as a solider in the war? Why might he have decided to devote much more time to his life before and after his time in the army?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">43. Did you ever trick-or-treat for UNICEF? Does this documentation of their work affect how you think about collecting for them on Halloween?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">44. Adult men seem to have been available in Sierra Leone at the time Beah was recruited into the army. Why recruit middle-school age boys instead of adult men to fight?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">45. Describe the scene between the various groups of boys who are brought to the rehabilitation home. Would you consider these boys beyond hope of rehabilitation? Would the U.S. juvenile justice system consider them beyond hope?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">46. **Chapter 16:** Who is Mambu? Why does Ishmael take a liking to him? And who is Esther, and why does Ishmael—later on—take a liking to her?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">47. Describe the children’s initial response to rehabilitation. Given the chance, would you work with children in this rehabilitative setting? Why or why not?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">48. Why did it make the child soldiers so angry when the staff repeatedly told them the things that happened weren’t their fault?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">49. **Chapter 17:** Benin Home, where Ishmael undergoes psychological, emotional, and social counseling, as well as physical and medical attention, is where he keeps hearing the “this isn’t your fault” remark from various staffers and professionals. Does he ever really accept this mantra? Explain.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">50. In Chapter 17, Ishmael describes “the first time [he’d] dreamt of [his] family since [he] started running away from the war” (p. 165). Paraphrase this nightmare, explaining how it differs from the many other dreams we’ve heard about from Ishmael. Also, explain how the dream illustrates his inner conflicts.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">51. Beah writes on page 153, “I had come to believe that people befriended only to exploit one another.” Does it make sense that he feels this way? What about the boys who were his friends before he joined the army?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">52. Music comes back as Beah goes through rehabilitation. What role does it play? Is its role different than earlier in the story? Explain your answer.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">53. What purpose do the flashbacks to wartime serve in this chapter and chapter sixteen? (Think back to our earlier discussion of how Beah moves around in time as he tells his story.)

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">54. Why did Beah change his mind about Esther?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">55. What is the significance, on pages 164-165, of Beah’s first dream about his family?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">56. **Chapter 18:** Describe Beah’s transition from child soldier back to child as he describes it. Discuss the steps that Beah takes to recapture his humanity.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">57. Beah finally writes on page 169, “I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.” Do you agree? Think back to our discussion of the American juvenile justice system. Does Beah’s comment apply? Why or why not?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">58. Beah meets his uncle in this chapter. Are you nervous for him or hopeful that Beah will finally move in with stable family members?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">59. **Chapter 19:** As he is leaving Benin Home, Ishmael says farewell to his friend Alhaji, who salutes him while whispering, “Goodbye, squad leader.” “I couldn’t salute him in return,” Ishmael writes (p. 180). Why?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">60. Describe the family Ishmael goes to live with after his eight-month rehabilitation. Who are they? How is he related to them? What does he think of them? Is he entirely honest with them? Which members of his new family is Ishmael closest to?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">61. What is the “open metal box” (p. 186) that Ishmael is so confused by? Why and where has he encountered this box?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">62. Why didn’t Beah date girls for very long once he moved in with his uncle, aunt, and cousins? (p. 184)

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">63. Why didn’t Beah’s uncle believe he was going to the United States?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">64. **Chapter 20:** How does Ishmael’s experience of New York City differ from what he had pictured beforehand? What does he like most about New York? What doesn’t he like? And why is he visiting New York in the first place? Identify some of the meaningful personal and professional contacts that our narrator makes there.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">65. Describe Beah’s trip to New York City. What shaped his impressions? What influenced him during his time there?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">66. **<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">Chapter 21: **<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The civil war reaches Freetown in this chapter. After the death of Beah’s uncle, he writes on page 209, “I have to try to get out, I thought, and if that doesn’t work, then it is back to the army.” Does this surprise you? Try to make sense of this statement.

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">67. On page 212, Beah writes, “It sickened me to see that Sierra Leoneans asked money from those who had come from the war. They were benefiting from people who were running for their lives.” Can you think of other examples of people who should be supporting one another instead exploiting one another? Why does this happen? (//This could also be a writing assignment.//)

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">68. The ending is abrupt. Beah isn’t out of danger yet, and he ends with a conundrum about a monkey? What’s the significance of the monkey story? How does it relate to the themes present in Beah’s story? Describe how you feel about the ending of the book?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">69. Reconsider the flash-forwards and flashbacks one last time. Why didn’t Beah just tell the story straight through chronologically?

<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">70. Is there information that Beah omitted that you are curious about? Why might Beah have left some parts of the story vague?