READING GUIDE: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Directions: It will be best if you answer the questions as you read. (Please realize that if you can
answer these questions that you are much more likely to do well on the chapter quizzes.) Also, you
will notice that throughout the novel there are sometimes double spaces between paragraphs. Note
that this indicates a change in time—sometimes a flashback and sometimes a flash forward.
Literary Devices—Consider the following literary devices as you read.
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flashback
imagery
theme
tone
mood
personification
simile
Chapters 1-3
1. How did Ishmael Beah’s grandmother explain the local adage that “we must strive to be like the
moon” (p. 16)? Consider why Ishmael has remembered this saying since childhood and what it means to
him.
2. 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)?
3. In Chapter 3 Ishmael writes, “That night for the first time in my life 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?
4. What was the goal when the rebels attacked the towns so fiercely? (p. 24)
Chapters 4-6
1. After their escape, why do Ishmael and the other boys sneak back into the village of Mattru Jong?
2. Why do you think Ishmael waits until the final line of Chapter 4 to reveal their theft?
3. 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 do you encounter the brutal, thuggish, or even sadistic behavior of young rebels—or of
other young people?
4. When the rebels overtake Beah and his brother and friends, why did they submit the boys to
selection processes? What did they see in Beah and his brother, Junior?
5. 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?
Chapters 7-9
1. How does the treatment of the imam (a highly religious and revered spiritual leader) show the rebels’
disregard for the village structure and morality in Chapter 7?
2. What does Ishmael tell us is the “most difficult part of being in the forest” (p. 52)?
3. In Chapter 9, what effect does seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time have on the boys?
4. Who is the anonymous man with the fishing hut near the ocean in Chapter 9? What does he do for
the boys?
5. How are the lives of all seven boys saved by rap music—specifically the music of LL Cool J?
Chapters 10-13
1. How does the oral tradition of storytelling play a key role in Chapter 10?
2. Describe the “name-giving ceremony” that Ishmael recalls his grandmother telling him (p. 75).
Consider who attends the ceremony, what it entails in the way of preparation, purpose, ritual, and food.
3. How are hope and loss juxtaposed, or contrasted, in Chapter 11?
4. At the village of Yele, a pivotal shift in the memoir begins when Ishmael goes from being an observer
and victim of violence to being a perpetrator of such violence. How does this shift happen? Do Ishmael
and his companions have any choice in making it?
5. In Chapter 13, the boy soldiers are given white tablets by their army superiors. What are they, and
why are they being given to the boys?
Chapter 14:
1. The corporal always says, “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” (p. 124). Is this statement true sometimes and
under some circumstances? Explain.
2. Explain the significance of this quote: “We were always either at the front lines, watching a war
movie, or doing drugs” (p. 124).
3. Describe the contest Beah wins in order to be promoted to junior lieutenant. Describe what
motivates Ishmael at this point in the story.
4. In this chapter, Ishmael is asked to leave for war in the middle of a movie one day and returns to the
screen after the killing “as if we had just returned from intermission.” Why might he make this
statement?
Chapter 15:
1. On page 128, the soldiers start singing the Sierra Leone national anthem. The words Beah repeats are
“High we exalt thee, realm of the free, great is the love we have for thee…” Why do you think he
includes that particular line in his story?
2. 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?
3. Adult men seem to have been available in Sierra Leone at the time Beah was recruited into the army.
Why recruit middle-school age (or younger) boys instead of adult men to fight?
4. What is ironic about Ishmael’s reaction to being out of the war zone and being moved to Benin
Home?
5. 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?
6. Consider the conflict of man vs. man (as the group of boys from the army and the rebels come
together at Benin Home) and the conflict of man vs. society (as the boys begin to battle against the
culture that is trying to rehabilitate them).
Chapter 16:
1. Describe the children’s initial response to rehabilitation. Explain their response and how the staff
handled it.
2. Why did it make the child soldiers so angry when the staff repeatedly told them the things that
happened weren’t their fault?
3. Why does Ishmael take his new nickname as a compliment?
4. Be sure to look for themes and symbols from this reading section (Ch. 14-16).
Chapter 17:
1. 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?
2. 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.
3. What purpose do the flashbacks to wartime serve in this chapter and Chapter 16?
4. Why did Beah have difficulty trusting Esther?
5. On pages 164-165, what is the significance of Beah’s first dream about his family?
6. How could Ishmael relate to the story of the meeting of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon?
Chapter 18:
1. Describe Beah’s transition from child soldier back to child as he describes it. Discuss the steps that
Beah takes to recapture his humanity.
2. Beah finally writes on page 169, “We can be rehabilitated…I believe children have the resilience to
outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.” Do you agree based on the novel so far?
3. What convinces Ishmael that the man introduced to him as his uncle truly was his uncle?
Chapter 19:
1. Why didn’t Beah date girls for very long once he moved in with his uncle, aunt, and cousins (p. 184)?
2. Why didn’t Beah’s uncle believe he was going to the United States?
3. What does it symbolize when Ishmael welcomes the opportunity to become a symbol for boy soldiers
in Sierra Leone?
Chapter 20
1. How does the theme of revenge return in this chapter? (Consider the speech Ishmael makes at the
U.N.)
2. What transformation occurs in Ishmael within the chapter?
Chapter 21
1. 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.” Explain this
statement and its ramifications.
2. 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.” Why does
Beah mention this detail beyond its meaning in the scene?
3. The ending is rather abrupt. It ends when Ishmael sees a mother telling her two children a story that
he had also heard as a child. Consider the various themes the fable touches on throughout the book
such as violence, family, storytelling, and childhood. The story also carries a message of sacrifice.
Consider how this last message reverberates throughout the memoir.