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HomeA Long Way GoneQ & AAsk a question and get answers from your fellow students and educators. Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived.
This action - along with Esther's gift of a Walkman and rap tapes - is a moment where the aid workers show respect for the boys at Benin Home. Slowly but surely, with the help of their caretakers, the boys begin to open up about their time at war. When the drugs subside for Beah, his headaches return with a vengeance. It takes him a long time to be able to cope with his new surroundings, as he had gotten used to living without hope of a life on the other side of war. Saroo Brierley's A Long Way Home is an autobiographical account of Saroo's adoption experience. After falling asleep on an empty train car as a very young child, Saroo is transported far from home and is unable to provide enough information to authorities to reunite with his family.
Discussion Questions
The birthday he celebrates is one given to him by the Calcutta authorities; they estimated the year, and the month and day are the date that he arrived at the orphanage. Within seven months, he was adopted by a family in Tasmania, Australia and became Saroo Brierley. He completed a degree in hospitality as a young man, but began working with his father in the family hosepipe business after graduating. While he was in college, he began using Google Earth to look for his hometown, and he finally succeeded after five years of searching. He returned to Khandwa for the first time in 2011 and was able to reconnect with his mother, younger sister, and older brother.
It also has discussion questions for each theme and a textual analysis activity. Brierly explicates, “In fact, the past was never far from my mind. At night, memories would flash by and I’d have trouble calming myself so I could sleep. Daytime was generally better, with lots of activity to distract me, but my mind was always busy.
Analysis Questions for A Long Way Gone
Judge whether or not you think it is possible to live a normal life after having experienced the things Ishmael did in this book. He was brainwashed, fed drugs, and became addicted, and forced to take the lives of others in war. Show bioShanna has been an educator for 20 years and earned her Master of Education degree in 2017. She enjoys using her experience to provide engaging resources for other teachers.
The regression is material for it aids Brierly not to disremember his past. All the things he witnessed and endured as a child are recorded in his unconscious; hence, he recalls them periodically at night. Moreover, the memories activate the desire to find his Indian family. Had he repressed the memories, he would not have the desire to trace them during his childhood.
A Mighty Long Way Discussion Questions
Beah states plainly that his induction into the Sierra Leone military at the age of 13 was the end of his childhood. Although the violent pursuit of rebels across Sierra Leone traumatized Beah, it is not until he is turned into a killer that he believes himself to have lost his innocence. At this point, Beah stops utilizing flashbacks to his childhood, clearly delineating his old "good" life with his new "bad" life. Before this point, his memories were comforting to him during his wandering and, narratively, they served the function of reminding the reader that Beah is still a child caught in an impossible situation. The Question and Answer section for A Long Way Gone is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Each country sets its own rules and guidelines for adoption, which can make navigating those rules especially challenging for prospective parents. This can, in some cases, lead to a practice known as baby stealing, where people actually kidnap infants to feed the international adoption market. Practices like these are what child’s-rights advocates overwhelmingly wish to stop.
How do the people in Sierra Leone cope with the conflict?
Although he holds out hope to see his family, he has no choice but to close off himself to the world. Emotional attachment can be weakness, and weakness can get you killed. Even when he joins forces with groups of friends Beah remains emotionally distant from his companions. When the boys bury Saidu, they know that they will never visit to his gravesite, despite the villager's efforts to comfort them with an open invitation to return. Over the months on the run, Beah gets separated - sometimes in death - from his companions. The unpredictability of his life dictates that he stay detached.
Other than laying the groundwork for a future home and life in the United States, the trip to New York gives Beah hope. At the end of the chapter, he is sad to leave, but also knows that if he dies in Sierra Leone, people will care. After years of witnessing and causing meaningless death, Beah comes to understand the value of his own life. Ishmael Beah refers to memories throughout A Long Way Gone, relayed as flashbacks. In difficult times, he clings to moments from happier years - especially those occurring before his parents' divorce.
The tapes remain with Beah throughout the months spent avoiding RUF attacks. They save his life - convincing the a chief that he is still a child at heart and not a "devil" - and narratively become a physical representation of his innocence. The tapes are burned when the army takes his cloths, thus continuing their symbolic importance. Music, a reminder of his old life, becomes a gateway to healing when Esther's gift of a Walkman helps Beah to open up at Benin Home.
Beah finds that he must suppress his emotional reaction to the atrocities he commits or lose his focus and, thereby, his life. The related, fundamental question, "What is family?" also threads through the narrative. His adoptive parents' loving upbringing together with their later support in his quest were crucial to his development. Saroo has to learn intellectually what a life of poverty had meant to his birth mother, who had few employment opportunities as a single mother. His appreciation for both aspects of his heritage offers another personal slant on the nature-nurture relationship that helps define kinship. The Question and Answer section for A Long Way Home is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
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