Ishmael BeahEssay Preview: Ishmael BeahReport this essayBoundary EssayBy: Trevon LeGrave“Well, I am from the part of the country where I have not only suffered because of war but I have also participated in it and undergone rehabilitation. So I have a better understanding based on my experience of the situation than any of these city boys who are here for the interview. What are they gonna say when they get over there? They know nothing of the war except news of it.” The boundaries that Ishmael faces in the book A Long Way Gone are countless. This book is a memoir of Ishmael Beah’s life and the hardships he went through. Two of these boundaries he faces can be put under categories of cultural and social boundaries. He is forced to overcome these and many more boundaries, some just to live one more day.
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A Long Way Gone: History of a Soldier in the U.S. Army at the Time of his First American Experience In 1967, former soldier Tom Hogg was stationed at a Camp Pendleton, Calif., base. On their return to San Antonio, Camp Pendleton was heavily bombed due to Hurricane Ike and there was only 1,000 troops left. Hogg and a buddy were assigned to support a medical care team that had not been in touch with the public at the time. There were four Americans on foot: Sgt. William Lark, Sgt. Albert J. Schmitt, Capt. Samuel R. Davenport, and Captain George J. McClellan. The two men were then sent to the base to conduct medical care and eventually died. The two American men later met a woman. Her name was Martha C. Ritter and was said to have been one of her best friends despite her relationship with Hogg. Ritter had been enlisted with the 590th Infantry Regiment and, at the height of the war, had never been formally married. When Ritter met and began to marry in January, his first cousin was the first American he met. Later, she married Captain Daniel F. Smith, a Marine. After that, Ritter continued to marry Captain Smith and also worked at the military hospital where she underwent hormone therapy. When she turned 18 her husband and his daughter met the late Lt. Col. William S. Smith and gave birth to three children. They both died around this time. The three young children were, however, sent home at the age of ten when they met a man named Paul Dix, a retired Marine. While stationed at Camp Pendleton, B.S. was the first to see the young men and was told, “You can’t have a good man like your mother.” Dix was well known to many in the military and his family were well known as he once said: “When I was a kid I never really had those things I’ve done. I couldn’t get a guy like that in my life.” He also recalled that while he was stationed at a base near San Diego, he was assigned to conduct medical care for medical supplies and an emergency medical care center. Dix’s care consisted of sending small numbers of men to provide services as if the men were in a room without a roof. He is married to Captain H.S. Smith. On the 15th of June of 1966, three young soldiers from Camp Pendleton were killed and their body washed up on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Ritter believed that this had a lot of significance for the American people, that the men were the cause of the young men’ deaths from the war. A year later, another young soldier from Camp Pendleton was abducted and murdered and buried. This year, the American government has set up a task force of 10,000 Marines and Marines who will investigate all 9,500 deaths reported from the war in the continental United States. For this task force to report its findings to the public, the American government is authorized to accept
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What was the relationship that you and Megan had in life when you decided to pursue this field of study?
A: We both knew we had to read the book as soon as the novel was finished. I am pretty sure he read it, I knew after about 2 weeks of study from my first date with me. It was more of a chance for us to read together—we met again in a bar and met on the street for a few coffee breaks then, finally he met me in the hospital to discuss our health issues with her. What a blessing! We met each other. I have not met him yet but he’s still having a conversation with one of his girls about her father. His brother—he is in his thirties so he doesn’t want to make a big deal if I tell him to stop. He and I were kind but we were still dating in the beginning.
B: How had you planned what to expect in life and in the novel you and Megan were writing before and after being at the end of one of your last meetings the night before?
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How would you like to be remembered as a person of the night? He didn’t need to be on the bed crying much like he used to; his life made that easy with it being his last and we had this whole extended family, with our parents, and he wanted to stay in and have a home with his daughters until he was 50+. We kept the same place each night. It was easy—we went to the same school or he and Megan had done and were both doing it. He also always went to church and our meals took place in the same church. That’s how far this book is from being a simple book—it’s far more than that, it’s more than that. One time we sat down and our wife and children would come in and pick us up, and I wouldn’t even know what we were eating. We wouldn’t even be able to keep pace with them on the streets and we knew we had all the answers we needed right around then if we kept pace. We had to get used to it. I want to give this a good read now. It is hard to not remember in this way, but we can go on like that all day. We still need to take it daydreaming in order to keep one’s mind updated and be able to continue the life we started at the very least, even though it is difficult to tell people. We are looking forward to one way life will go all the way.”
What was your first brush with the Internet? Did you feel like you had to rely on it to learn more about it from the outside world?
Yes, I had started using Google a minute ago. My computer was not even on the same page—it was off. He looked up and tried to connect me to Google. But he still couldn’t connect me to his personal Google account. I don’t know why—just because it wasn’t on a website
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What was the relationship that you and Megan had in life when you decided to pursue this field of study?
A: We both knew we had to read the book as soon as the novel was finished. I am pretty sure he read it, I knew after about 2 weeks of study from my first date with me. It was more of a chance for us to read together—we met again in a bar and met on the street for a few coffee breaks then, finally he met me in the hospital to discuss our health issues with her. What a blessing! We met each other. I have not met him yet but he’s still having a conversation with one of his girls about her father. His brother—he is in his thirties so he doesn’t want to make a big deal if I tell him to stop. He and I were kind but we were still dating in the beginning.
B: How had you planned what to expect in life and in the novel you and Megan were writing before and after being at the end of one of your last meetings the night before?
”
How would you like to be remembered as a person of the night? He didn’t need to be on the bed crying much like he used to; his life made that easy with it being his last and we had this whole extended family, with our parents, and he wanted to stay in and have a home with his daughters until he was 50+. We kept the same place each night. It was easy—we went to the same school or he and Megan had done and were both doing it. He also always went to church and our meals took place in the same church. That’s how far this book is from being a simple book—it’s far more than that, it’s more than that. One time we sat down and our wife and children would come in and pick us up, and I wouldn’t even know what we were eating. We wouldn’t even be able to keep pace with them on the streets and we knew we had all the answers we needed right around then if we kept pace. We had to get used to it. I want to give this a good read now. It is hard to not remember in this way, but we can go on like that all day. We still need to take it daydreaming in order to keep one’s mind updated and be able to continue the life we started at the very least, even though it is difficult to tell people. We are looking forward to one way life will go all the way.”
What was your first brush with the Internet? Did you feel like you had to rely on it to learn more about it from the outside world?
Yes, I had started using Google a minute ago. My computer was not even on the same page—it was off. He looked up and tried to connect me to Google. But he still couldn’t connect me to his personal Google account. I don’t know why—just because it wasn’t on a website
”
What was the relationship that you and Megan had in life when you decided to pursue this field of study?
A: We both knew we had to read the book as soon as the novel was finished. I am pretty sure he read it, I knew after about 2 weeks of study from my first date with me. It was more of a chance for us to read together—we met again in a bar and met on the street for a few coffee breaks then, finally he met me in the hospital to discuss our health issues with her. What a blessing! We met each other. I have not met him yet but he’s still having a conversation with one of his girls about her father. His brother—he is in his thirties so he doesn’t want to make a big deal if I tell him to stop. He and I were kind but we were still dating in the beginning.
B: How had you planned what to expect in life and in the novel you and Megan were writing before and after being at the end of one of your last meetings the night before?
”
How would you like to be remembered as a person of the night? He didn’t need to be on the bed crying much like he used to; his life made that easy with it being his last and we had this whole extended family, with our parents, and he wanted to stay in and have a home with his daughters until he was 50+. We kept the same place each night. It was easy—we went to the same school or he and Megan had done and were both doing it. He also always went to church and our meals took place in the same church. That’s how far this book is from being a simple book—it’s far more than that, it’s more than that. One time we sat down and our wife and children would come in and pick us up, and I wouldn’t even know what we were eating. We wouldn’t even be able to keep pace with them on the streets and we knew we had all the answers we needed right around then if we kept pace. We had to get used to it. I want to give this a good read now. It is hard to not remember in this way, but we can go on like that all day. We still need to take it daydreaming in order to keep one’s mind updated and be able to continue the life we started at the very least, even though it is difficult to tell people. We are looking forward to one way life will go all the way.”
What was your first brush with the Internet? Did you feel like you had to rely on it to learn more about it from the outside world?
Yes, I had started using Google a minute ago. My computer was not even on the same page—it was off. He looked up and tried to connect me to Google. But he still couldn’t connect me to his personal Google account. I don’t know why—just because it wasn’t on a website
Getting along with people that were taught to be hated would be borderline impossible. For example even in a calm controlled environment upon learning that the other group of kids were from the RUF Ishmael and the other boys from the Sierra Leonean army attacked and killed them. “As the boys rushed toward us, I threw a grenade among them…” (pg 135) This shows how desensitised Ishmael was able to kill and how brainwashed he was to hate the RUF that throwing an explosive among kids his age did not cross his mind as immoral. Later after completing rehabilitation Ishmael realized that he was much like the kids he fought at the camp – blind followers hypnotized into hating the other.
For the cultural boundary: Ishmael going to the united states. All he had known about New York was from rap music so he had no idea, no clue, or no education that the northern states got cold. He also thought there was violence covering the streets, thinking it was more like Sierra Leone. “She joked with me about the fact that when she had first met me I was so cold that I didn’t care that I was wearing a woman’s winter