A Long Way Gone

By Ishmael Beah

ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!! THESE ARE YOUR ENTRY TICKET INTO YOUR GROUP EVERY DAY!

Chapter One

  1. How does Ishmael’s grandmother explain the local adage that “We must strive to be like the moon”? Why has Ishmael remembered this? What does it mean to him?
  2. What kinds of things console Ishmael in this chapter? Explain.
  3. Describe Ishmael and his friends-what kind of boys are they? What do they like to do?
  4. Describe Ishmael’s relationship with each member of his family (mom, dad, brothers, grandmother).

Chapter Two

  1. What is in the wheelbarrow that is described? Where is he pushing the wheelbarrow to?
  2. What does Ishmael mean when he says “I am looking at my own” (p.19)?
  3. Why do you think Ishmael’s memories are important? What good are the memories if they bring him so much pain?
  4. What does Ishmael mean when he says, “being alive itself to be a burden?”

Chapter Three

  1. “That night for the first time in my life I realized that it’s the physical presence of people and their spirits that gives a town life.” What prompts Ishmael to observe this? How old is he?
  2. Who are the five boys he flees with at the end of this chapter?
  3. How will the RUF tattoo effect those who have it at the end of the war?

Chapter Four

  1. Why are people afraid of six boys traveling together?
  2. How do the choices of the boys change in this chapter? What choices do they make that violate the law or morality?

Chapter Five

  1. Describe whether Ishmael is saved by physical ability, wit or coincidence in this chapter. Use the book to justify your position.
  2. Discuss the influence of American, Western culture in this chapter. Where do you see it referenced?
  3. What decisions does Ishmael make to regain control over his situation?
  4. How does Ishmael describe the rebel soldier treating the old man? How is this different than what would have been accepted before the war? Predict how this difference will manifest itself later in the book.

Chapter Six

  1. Explain how this quote relates to the story, “This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy.”
  2. What is special about Ishmael’s memory of his older brother skipping rocks? Why does he remember it at this time specifically?
  3. “I was a troublesome boy as well and always got into fights…Since we didn’t have a mother…” Why do you think Ishmael thought it was important to share this side of his pre-war personality? Why is it ironic?

Chapter Seven

  1. What question does Ishmael ask himself as he faces the horrors of war and is separated from his family?
  2. Why do the two boys bring along brooms?
  3. Why does Ishmael set out on his own?
  4. Give one quote from the chapter that describes Ishmael’s emotional state and explain it.

Chapter Eight

  1. Who are the two groups of people Ishmael faces danger from? Explain each.
  2. What would scare Ishmael into running for miles? What does that reveal about his emotional state?
  3. List all of the things that Ishmael is afraid of (at least five).
  4. What does Ishmael tell us was “the most difficult part of being in the forest?”
  5. Who are the six boys he encounters after surviving in the forest? Where does he know some of them from?
  6. What is the story of the hunter and the pigs a metaphor of?
  7. What kinds of thoughts help Ishmael gain perspective on his situation? What ideas and philosophies give him strength?
  8. How does Ishmael see himself changing as a result of his struggles?
  9. How is Ishmael becoming a “monster?” Explain.

Chapter Nine

  1. How does the cassette save their lives again? Who is the rapper who is mentioned?
  2. How are the boys charmed? (2) How are the boys cursed? (2)
  3. Find the phrase “a long way gone” in this chapter. What is the context for this line? What is happening? Why do you think Ishmael chose this as the title of the book? Explain it.
  4. Who is the anonymous man with the fishing hut? How does he help the boys feet heal?

Chapter Ten

  1. How does Saidu’s prediction come true?
  2. What is the bad omen? How does it foreshadow what happens in this chapter?

Chapter Eleven

  1. Describe how Ishmael is “lucky” in this chapter.
  2. What is ironic about the situation with Ishmael’s family?
  3. Why do the words “None of this is anyone’s fault” make Ishmael angry?
  4. What leads Ishmael to violence? Predict how “violence” will change as far as Ishmael is concerned from this point in the novel forward.
  5. How does Ishmael change in this chapter?
  6. This is a “transition” chapter. What is the nature of this “transition?”

Chapter Twelve

  1. Name three things that demonstrate irony in this chapter and explain.
  2. Using the book to justify your response, do Ishmael and his companions have any choice but to become perpetrators of violence rather than victims of it?
  3. Why do you think Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is mentioned? What is jarring or unusual about that reference in this context?
  4. What melted in the fire that was precious to Ishmael? What is this symbolic of?
  5. What is foreshadowing about Ishmael’s childhood game?

Chapter Thirteen

  1. What do you think the corporal means when he says, “…worship your Lord today, because you might not have another chance?”
  2. How does the quote “My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed” indicative of how Ishmael has changed from the beginning of the book?
  3. What saying does the boy’s Tupac shirt have on it? How is it ironic?

Chapter Fourteen

  1. Who do the boys relate the people they kill to?
  2. What do Ishmael and the other boy soldiers do when they are on a mission?
  3. What movies do they like to watch and why?
  4. What else do they do with their spare time?
  5. The lieutenant tells them, “we are not like the rebels, those riffraff’s who kill people for no reason.” Is this true? Use the text to justify your response.
  6. Why is Ishmael promoted to junior lieutenant? How did he achieve this new rank?
  7. Why doesn’t shooting people make Ishmael feel better?

Chapter Fifteen

  1. Name three reasons that making the child-soldiers into normal boys again is going to be difficult.
  2. How long has Ishmael been a soldier?
  3. What happens to Ishmael and Alhaji, and a few other select boys, in the town of Bauya?
  4. Where are they taken and by whom?
  5. Name the ways “family” is (1)configured,(2) re-configured, (3)challenged and (4)re-affirmed in this book.
  6. What process does Ishmael need to go through in order to become “normal?” What is “normal?”

Chapter Sixteen

  1. What blocked Ishmael’s memories of his childhood?
  2. What does Ishmael have a hard time with in this chapter?
  3. Identify two conflicts “Man vs. Man” and two conflicts “Man vs. Self” from this chapter.

Chapter Seventeen

  1. Paraphrase Ishmael’s nightmare and explain how it differs from the other dreams Ishmael has had.
  2. How does the dream illustrate Ishmael’s inner conflicts?
  3. What do many of the boy soldiers experience as they go through rehabilitation at night?
  4. What words do the staff members constantly repeat to the boys? Why?
  5. Why does the woman want Ishmael to state his name out loud? How does this relate to other areas in the novel where the people Ishmael encounters do not give him their names?
  6. What does Ishmael finally begin to believe? Why is this so?
  7. What does the “return” of the moon symbolize?

Chapter Eighteen

  1. What emotion does Ishmael now have that he didn’t have before? Explain.
  2. What evidence is there that Ishmael’s happiness will always be fragile?
  3. What evidence is there that Ishmael’s happiness may be able to become more permanent?

Chapter Nineteen

  1. Why couldn’t Ishmael salute Alhaji?
  2. What does Ishmael learn by asking “Why have I survived the war? Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive?”
  3. What does Ishmael’s uncle tell him to comfort him after he comes to live there? Why is this important?

Chapter Twenty

  1. What was Ishmael’s conception about New York? What did he expect it to be like? How was it different from what he expected?
  2. Why is Ishmael pleased to meet people outside of Sierra Leone? How does this relate to his experiences there?

Chapter Twenty-One

  1. What metaphorical journey does Ishmael take? Where does he come from? Where does he go to?
  2. What institution helped Ishmael regain control over his new life? What important things did it provide in his life?
  3. “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.” To what extent does this statement resolve the loose ends of the book? To what extent does this statement leave the book “open” and “unfinished.