A Long Way Gone
By Ishmael Beah 1. Describe whether Ishmael is saved by physical
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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
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.