Study Guide for A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Modified from nau.edu for EGHS
General Questions about the Memoir's Narrator/Author
Describe anything and everything about Ishmael Beah that you can remember from having read his memoir.
Since the entire memoir is filtered through his gaze, the more you try to see the world through his eyes, the
more you’ll come to appreciate the unique way in which he has crafted his memoir.
1. How does Ishmael Beah see the world around him? What details does his notice? How does he relate
these details for us?
2. What comments does Beah make about his village, his people, his family members, his friends, and
the like? Who stands out in his memoir as being special to him, and why?
3. What makes this first-person account compelling? engaging? confusing? memorable?
Questions about the Memoir's “Story” or Plot
1. How would you describe the basic “story” or “plot” of this memoir? What happens first, second,
third, and so on? What kinds of events are repeated? What kinds of events are unique, happening only
once? What do you learn by examining what is repeated in the story and what isn't? How does a
reader process, internalize, experience the story's repeated events? What might be Beah's intention in
writing the memoir in this way?
2. How would you describe the “setting” of Beah's memoir? Of what does this setting consist? In what
ways does the setting change as the memoir progresses? What is the effect of having this setting
change (or not change, depending on the context of the plot) as the story progresses? How does the
setting of the story affect the plot's movement, its progression?
3. Does the narrative progress linearly? Chronologically? When does it diverge from a straightforward,
linear progression?
4. A story is often said to have a “denouément” or a “climax” of some sort. In what ways does Beah's
memoir have such a thing? In what ways does it not exhibit this trait of many stories?
5. As is said in Alice in Wonderland, we read books by starting at the beginning, going through the
middle, and stopping when we come to the end. What might be the beginning, middle, and end of
Beah's memoir? Can you divide the story of his life into parts that make sense to you, that give it
some sort of organization? How does this story's ending seem finished? Unfinished? Why? If it
seems unfinished to you, why would Beah leave the story with this sense of irresolution?
The People in Beah's Life
1. Beah's memoir is chock full of people. In every chapter, Beah talks about friends, foes, family
members, relatives, acquaintances, strangers, enemies, helpers, old men, boys, women, the dead and
the living. Who are some of these persons?
2. Whom does Beah consider to be important to him, on his journeys through Sierra Leone and in New
York? What makes these persons important to Beah? Who affects Beah? Who are the persons whom
Beah cannot ever forget, and why?
3. What makes a friend a friend, to Beah? What makes a good man good, a bad man bad?
4. Who are the girls and women in Beah's life whom he never forgets? Why is there so much less
mention of females than males in Beah's memoir? Why can and does he name so many boys and men
in his life but so few girls and women?
5. When Beah remembers a family member, in what context does this memory occur? What, exactly,
does he remember about his father, mother, brothers, grandfather, grandmother, and other relatives?
What do these memories tell us about Beah himself? His culture?
6. How does Beah describe the government soldiers and the RUF members? Are they ever described in
a positive way? If so, how? What stands out in Beah's memory about these persons in his life?
7. Who affects Beah in a positive way? How would you describe these positive affects on Beah? What
do these persons do for Beah that could be considered good and beneficial?
Violence
1. There is no doubt that this memoir's graphic depictions of violence are numerous and unsettling.
What makes these innumerable portrayals of violence disturbing, aside from the fact that they are,
indeed, detailed? What is your emotional response to reading about so much violence? What is your
intellectual response?
2. Are we more or less unsettled by these depictions of violence than, say, the violence we see in the
movie theaters, in video games, on the evening news? Why or why not?
3. Beah's memory is photographic, and he spares no details in giving us what he remembers of the
violence that colored his life for 3 years. What is his purpose in being so detailed?
4. Beah not only describes violent situations perpetrated by others; he also tells us about the unthinkable
violence that he committed against others. Again, what is his point in doing this? What do we learn
from Beah's candor and honesty in this regard?
5. How does our U.S. culture fit into the picture of violence that Beah draws for us? Think of some the
rap groups that he quotes, or the movies that he watches while a child soldier, or where the guns that
he uses are made, or his impression of NYC before he arrives.
6. Many of us have heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and perhaps some of us have
experienced this disorder, or knows of someone who has. What is the effect of the unrelenting
violence that Beah experiences upon his memories, dreams, waking life, interactions with others,
biology/phisiology, emotions, and perceptions? By what complex process does Beah learn to deal
with this disorder and even heal from it, to a degree?
7. In what way does Beah experience the renewed violence after he has been “rehabilitated” and is now
living with his uncle? To what extent can he withstand the violence that surrounds his uncle's home?
8. What are the root causes of such wars as have been fought in Sierra Leone, and the violence that was
so much a part of it and of other conflicts as well?
9. What does Beah offer us as a way to understand these violent conflicts and the ways to curtail them,
to get beyond them, or to learn from them in some way?
Questions about Passages and Chapters
1. “What kind of liberation movement shoots innocent civilians, children, that little girl”? (p. 14).
Discuss the ethics of liberation movements.
2. “Whenever I get a chance to observe the moon now, I still see those same images I saw when I was
six, and it pleases me to know that that part of my childhood is still embedded in me” (p. 17). What
kinds of things console Ishmael during the traumas that he experiences?
3. “These days, I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger
memories from the past” (p. 20). What evidence do you see that these 3 worlds become separate and
distinct, differentiated, for Ishmael? Or do they ever become this way for him?
4. The “other two were dressed in jeans jackets and pants, wearing baseball hats backward and new
Adidas sneakers. All three wore a lot of fancy watches on both wrists” (p. 31). Discuss the influence
of American, Western culture upon Ishmael's life.
5. “I felt as if I had been wrapped in a blanket of sorrow” (p. 46). What other phrases do you remember
from the book that are particularly descriptive of Beah's emotional state? (See, for example, p. 80.)
6. “I sat down and tried to think about how I was going to get out of the forest. But that didn't go well,
since I was afraid of thinking” (p. 50). What are the things – from the obvious to the implied and
intangible – that Beah is afraid of?
7. “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” (p. 54). What kinds of thoughts help Ishmael
gain perspective on his situation? What ideas and philosophies give him strength?
8. “'It is Shakespeare.' He showed me the cover. 'Julius Caesar. Have you heard of it?'” (p. 104). What
do you find jarring or unusual about this reference to Shakespeare in a book such as this?
9. “The closest thing to it had been a toy gun made out of bamboo when I was seven. My playmates and
I carved them and played war games in the coffee farms and unfinished building at my grandmother's
village. Paw paw, we would go, and whoever did it first would announce to the rest whom he had
killed” (p. 111). Relate experiences that you may have had with “toy” guns and “playing army,” or
“cowboys and Indians.” To what extent does this book help you view such experiences differently?
10. “The branches of the trees looked as if they were holding hands and bowing their heads in
prayer....One lonely cricket tried to start singing, but none of its companions joined in, so it stopped
to let silence bring night” (p. 119). Locate other passages in Beah's memoir that focus on nature or
the natural world..
11. “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be
killed. . . . and it seemed as if my heart had frozen” (p. 126). Discuss the ways in which the idea of
“family” is configured, re-configured, challenged, and re-affirmed in this book
12. “It hadn't crossed their minds that a change of environment wouldn't immediately make us normal
boys; we were dangerous, and brainwashed to kill” (p. 135). What process does Beah need to go
through in order to become “normal”? What is “normal” by his or our standards?
13. “'What is your name?' I was surprised, since I was certain that she knew my name. 'You know my
name,' I angrily said. 'Maybe I do, but I want you to tell me your name,' she insisted, widening her
eyes. 'Okay, okay. Ishmael,' I said” (p. 153). Why does the woman want Ishmael to state his own
name, out loud? What do you make of other instances in the book where persons whom Ishmael
encounters do not give him their names?
14. “'None of these things are your fault,' she would always say sternly at the end of every conversation.
Even though I had heard that phrase from every staff member – and frankly I had always hated it – I
began that day to believe in.” (p. 165). Why does the repetition of this phrase anger Beah?
15. “I still believed in the fragility of happiness” (p. 173). What evidence do you have in the book that
happiness, for Beah, will always remain “fragile”? What evidence do you have that happiness for
Beah can become more permanent?
16. “Why have I survived the war? Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive”? (p.
179). What does Ishmael learn by asking these “Job”-like questions?
17. “All this [joining the army] is because of starvation, the loss of our families, and the need to feel safe
and be part of something when all else has broken down” (p. 199). Are there any implied solutions to
war between the lines of what Ishmael says in these statements?
18. “'If you shoot me, your mother will die, and if you don't, your father will die.' ...I concluded to myself
that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put
other hunters in the same predicament” (p. 218). To what extent does this statement resolve the loose
ends of the book, and to what extent does this statement still leave the book “open” and “unfinished”?