Update on Ishmael

Ishamel Beah is now living in Brooklyn New York and has become very successful. He is working for Human Rights Watch Children's Division Advisory Committee. He also wants to attend graduate school. He has served as the key spokesperson for some events, like the Global Young Leaders conference in 2007. He is currently 29 and visited his homeland in Sierra Leone with a news group and said that it was a good and bad thing. His book A Long Way Gone has earned an award called the Quill award for the best debut author in 2007.

This is where I found my information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Beah

Song for Ishmael

I chose this song because the lyrics are talking about for 400 years there has been wars, and the youth are always in the middle. Bob Marley is saying that we can end the war, all of the youth can go to the land of liberty, the land of free (America), were there is no more boy soldiers and killing.


Bob Marley — "400 Years" lyrics

Translation in progress. Please wait...

400 years (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)
And it's the same -
The same (wo-o-o-o) philosophy
I've said it's four hundred years;
(400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
Look, how long (wo-o-o-o)
And the people they (wo-o-o-o) still can't see.
Why do they fight against the poor youth of today?
And without these youths, they would be gone -
All gone astray

Come on, let's make a move:
(make a move, make a move. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
I can (wo-o-o-o) see time (wo-o-o-o) - time has come,
And if-a fools don't see
(fools don't see, fools don't see. Wo-o-o-o)
I can't save the youth:
The youth (wo-o-o-o) is gonna be strong.
So, won't you come with me;
I'll take you to a land of liberty
Where we can live - live a good, good life
And be free.

Look how long: 400 years, (400 years, 400 years) -
Way too long! (wo-o-o-o)
That's the reason my people (wo-o-o-o) - my people can't see.
Said, it's four hundred long years - (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)
Give me patience (wo-o-o-o) - same philosophy.

It's been 400 years, (400 years, 400 years)
Wait so long! Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o.
How long? 400 long, long years. /fadeout/

A Single Slice Reveals Them

By: Naomi Shihab Nye

An apple on the table
hides its seeds
so neatly
under seamless skin.

But we talk and talk and talk
to let somebody
in.

The first stanza is saying that Ishmael is alive on the outside and looks like he is okay, but on the inside where no one but himself can see, he is dying mentally. And he can keep it hidden like the apple hides its seeds. I think that the second stanza is saying that in order to fix Ishmael's problems, he needs to keep hearing good things that will drive him into being normal again.

Double Consciousness

Ishmael is a soldier now. He used to be a boy but the war changed him, along with everyone else he knew. As soon as he accepted his gun, he became an adult. Now he has to live with the thoughts of killing with no mercy, for the rest of his life. When he had all the drugs and was killing he never had to think. Now that he has nothing, he has everything to think of, including his family he will never see again. Once you see death, you can never really go back and erase it from your mind, like UNICEF is hoping for. He is not ever really going to be a kid again, because seeing the things he saw changed him. So when he tries to be a kid again, all he knows is how to be a soldier.

Acrostic Poem

Lost children
In Sierra Leone
Too young to kill
Too young to die
Losing everything they have ever known
Energetic from all the drugs

Ripped apart
And dead inside
Made to kill
Born to live
Orphaned forever

A Soldier Long Way Gone

What I learned from the movie was that we are a very lucky country and we don't even realize it. Compared to the book a long way gone, it was very similar. Just like the lost boys, ishmael had to leave his family and friends and go somewhere new. Like the lost boys, He felt like giving up.