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3 Lines that relate to Ishmael's journey.

"I'm trying not to lose my head"
"I can't take the smell, can't take the noise"
"Got a bum education, double-digit inflation"

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Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (Official Video)

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There was this moment when Ishmael didn't know what he was going to do with his life when in the middle of his journey. "One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn't sure when or where it was going to end. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life."(69) During his journey Ishmael talks about people that every time someone try's to kill him, he just accepts and waits for death."Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death" (70) In chapter 17, Ishmael meets a nurse who in the first time in a long time is a person who is very nice to him ever since he has been at the hospital and I think its important because he hasn't been treated nicely in such a long time by someone. "She threw a package at me. I held it in my hand, wondering what it was and why she had gotten it for me. She was looking at me, waiting for me to open it. When I unwrapped it, I jumped up and hugged her, but immediately held back my happiness." (154) Ishmael was in war for a really long time. Of course over time he has been shot and shot at. Esther finds gunshot wounds on his leg and tells her the story on how he got those wounds. He becomes mad when she shows sympathy to him. "When I finished telling Esther the story, she had tears in her eyes and she couldn't decide whether to rub my head or hug me. In the end she did neither, but said, none of it is your fault. I became angry and regretted that I had told someone, a civilian, about my experience." (160) While at the rehab center, Ishmael has a nightmare where he dreams about there were men circled in a dark room around Ishmael and they all began to stab, shoot, and slice each others throats. The blood began to fill the room and the men disappeared and then Ishmael went outside, seen his family, they smiled at him and woke up from the dream. "They had all circled me in the dark. I could see their bodies--except their faces, which were darker, as if they were headless walking beings. Some were barefoot and others wore army boots. All had guns and knives. They began to shoot, stab, slice each other's throats." (164)

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Ishmael Beah's message for people is that his country needs help. Africa has rebels running around, attacking villages and their own people. These rebels recruit children and these children help them. He believes that education and rescuing children of war will help save them. He wants his country to have a good education for his people, he explains that is the only way to help is to educate all people. That is Ishmael Beah's message.

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A long way gone is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael is a victim of war in his country. Beah will encounter many challenges on his way throughout is journey. Everything that is important to him was gone. His family, friends, and village are all gone. He is on the run from rebels, and must do whatever he can to survive. People who live in free countries like America, Australia, Canada, or whoever need to realize how lucky they are. Not a lot of people who live there have to wake up and think "will this be my last day alive?", Ishmael has to and its not fair, no child should have to go through something like this and I believe people need to know about the problems in countries like this and give the help these victims of war need.

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Symbolism is an image or an object that describes something and it is what it is and could possibly be more, in most cases. I chose a staircase as a symbol, Ishmael is on a journey to be free and be able to return to a good life. He must climb stairs and reach the top in order to do so. By doing this, he will need to be fully dedicated and he will become free. Ishmael encounters men who are trying to kill his group who think they're child soldiers and they always have a narrow escape from death many and many times while on this journey to be free.  "Many times during our journey we were surrounded by muscular men with machetes who almost killed us before they realized that we were just children running away from the war. Sometimes I looked at the blades of the machetes and thought about how much it would hurt to be chopped with one. Other times I was so hungry and tired that I didn’t care. At crowded villages where we sometimes stopped to spend the night, the men stayed up to keep an eye on us. When we went to the river to wash our faces, mothers would grab their children and run home."