A Long Way Gone
Ishmael Beah
Group goals and study guide
Note: All assignments from the study guide must be completed at the time class begins. Bring
two copies to class—one for me and one for you to use in discussion. Handwritten responses
will need to be photocopied; typed ones can simply be printed twice. Late work is not accepted.
You have a responsibility to your group members to come prepared.
Week
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Assignment due
Pre-reading and Chapters 1-4
Chapters 5-9
Chapters 10-13
Chapters 14-17
Chapters 18-21
Presentations
Date responses due
Monday, 4/19
Monday, 4/26
Monday, 5/3
Monday, 5/10
Monday, 5/17
Wednesday, 5/19
Week 6—Pre-reading Responses and Chapters 1-4
Before you begin reading the novel, I want you to have some background information and
discover some information about the author, the ideas in the novel, and the purpose for reading
the novel. Take notes on your research and answer the following questions in your notes.
Discuss your research and your answers this week in your groups.
Discovering Ishmael Beah
 Do an Internet search on Ishmael Beah. What do you learn about his life? What is
Beah doing today?
Ideas in A Long Way Gone for you to consider
 What effects do you think war has for children in war zones?
 Should children and teenagers be held responsible for their actions during a time
of war (for example, being enlisted as a soldier)?
 When struck by tragedy, how important is it to still have hope?
The Purpose
 Why should we read about another person’s life experiences?
 What do people from other cultures have to learn from this story about the war in
Sierra Leone?
New York City, 1998
 The book opens in an American high school with the students saying it is “cool”
that Beah saw “people running around with guns and shooting each other.” Why
does Beah include this picture for the readers? What about American culture leads
these students to think of that violence as “cool”?
Chapter One
 Why doesn’t Beah relate to the refugees who pass through? Why don’t the
townspeople believe them when they warn that the war will come to Mogbwemo?
 Why do the boys decide not to return to Mogbwemo after going back to Beah’s
grandmother’s village of Kabati?
Chapter Two
 How is the Ishmael in Chapter Two different than the boy in Chapter One? Be
specific.
Chapter Three
 What is life like in Mattru Jong for Ishmael, his brother, and his friends before the
rebels come?
 Why would it have been especially bad for Ishmael and the other young boys to be
caught? What would have happened to them?
Chapter Four
 Why do you think the boy Ishmael saw refused to drop the big bag of belongings
he had as he tried to escape Mattru Jong? What do you think happened to him?
 Ishmael and the boys steal food at the end of the chapter. Would they have
thought to do something like that before the rebels arrived? Why or why not?
 What do you think is going to happen to Ishmael?
Reading Assignment for week six: Chapters 5-9
Week 7 Responses
Chapter Five
 Why do the boys decide to return to Mattru Jong again? What happens when they
get there?
 Why is Junior selected for the rebels while the other boys are supposed to die?
What stops them from being killed? What is Ishmael and Junior’s relationship like
at the end of the chapter?
Chapter Six
 What do we learn about the relationship between Ishmael and Junior early in this
chapter? Why does Ishmael want Junior to ask him if he is fine?

We learn at the end of the chapter that Ishmael will never see Junior again. What
do you think will happen to Ishmael? To Junior?
Chapter Seven
 How does Ishmael end up alone in this chapter? Why do you think his friend
Kaloko chooses not to go with him?
 When Ishmael encounters the family swimming, why do you think they decide
not to help him or ask him to go along with them?
Chapter Eight
 What people does Ishmael think about when he is alone in the forest?
 This thought, from his father, keeps Ishmael going: “If you are alive, there is hope
for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the
destiny of a person, he or she will die.” What do you think of this quote?
 Why are villagers afraid of the “seven boys”?
Chapter Nine
 When the boys are captured by the fishermen and brought to the chief, what
happens?
 Why do you think the man in the hut tried to take care of the boys when no one
else did?
 The phrase “A long way gone” appears in this chapter. What is its meaning as it
relates to the boys at this point in the story?
 How do Ishmael’s cassette tapes save him and his friends at the end of the
chapter? Why do the boys laugh about what happened to them?
Reading Assignment for week seven: Chapters 10-13
Week 8 Responses
Chapter Ten
 How do the boys find some happiness in this chapter?
 What happens to Saidu? How does it affect the boys?
 Ishmael is told his family is in the next village. Do you think he will find them?
Why or why not?
Chapter Eleven
 Kanei says he thinks the boys will find their families or news of them, stretching
his “hands as if trying to catch the sun.” Why do you think Beah describes him in
this moment as “trying to catch the sun”? Why does Kanei still have hope?
 When the boys meet Gasemu and Ishmael learns that his family is in the village,
how does Ishmael feel?


What happens to Ishmael’s family? How does he react to it?
Why does Ishmael attack Gasemu?
Chapter Twelve
 How is life in Yele for Ishmael and his friends to begin with? What happens to
change that?
 Why are Ishmael and his friends asked to fight? Did he/they have a choice?
Chapter Thirteen
 The chapter begins with the boys playing soccer and swimming, but how does it
change shortly after?
 What does Ishmael do after he discovers that Josiah and Musa are dead?
 How does Ishmael feel about his gun and killing by the end of the chapter?
Reading Assignment for week eight: Chapters 14-17
Week 9 Responses
Chapter Fourteen
 What is Ishmael’s life as a soldier like? What activities does he do on a regular
basis?
 What is your reaction to the scene when Ishmael kills the prisoner while looking in
his eyes?
Chapter Fifteen
 How many years have passed since the end of Chapter 14 to the beginning of
Chapter 13? What has Ishmael been doing during that time?
 What happens to Ishmael and Alhaji when the UNICEF workers come to the
camp?
 What happens when Ishmael and the other boys from his squad meet boys from
the RUF in their new compound? Why does Ishmael hate the boys from the RUF?
Chapter Sixteen
 How do the boys treat the “civilians” who take care of them? How do they treat
the compound where they’re staying?
 What was Ishmael’s nickname when he was fighting? How did he earn it?
 In this chapter, Ishmael flashes back to his time as a fighter through nightmares
and memories. What haunts him about his experiences?
Chapter Seventeen
 What does Esther the nurse do to help Ishmael begin to trust her? Why do you
think she is the first “civilian” to be able to get through to him?


How was Ishmael’s foot injured? What did he do to the people he thought were
responsible?
What do you think is going to happen to Ishmael now that he is beginning to
recover from his dark past?
Reading Assignment for week 9: Chapters 18-21
Week 10 Responses
Chapter Eighteen
 Explain what you think Ishmael means when he says, “At the end of each laugh
there was always some feeling of sadness that I couldn’t escape.”
 At the beginning of the book, Ishmael is headed to a performance with his brother
and friends; in this chapter, he participates in the talent show and finally performs.
How is his performance received? What happens to him as a result of it?
 Ishmael was aching for someone familiar and was reunited with his childhood
friend Mohamed. Then his uncle is found. How does Ishmael feel about his uncle
and his family?
Chapter Nineteen
 Why do you think Ishmael chooses not to tell Esther that he loves her?
 How does Ishmael adjust to his new life while being haunted by his past?
 Why do you think Ishmael is selected to speak to the UN instead of the other
boys?
 Why doesn’t Ishmael’s uncle believe he is going to America?
Chapter Twenty
 What things surprise Ishmael about New York?
 Ishmael begins to change in New York. How does the visit affect his outlook?
Chapter Twenty-one
 What happens to Ishmael and Mohamed when they go to buy food? Why do they
react differently than the other people around them?
 Why does Ishmael decide he has to escape from Freetown after his uncle dies?
What will happen if he stays?
 Ishmael concludes his novel safe in the Sierra Leonean embassy, thinking about a
story he heard as a child about hunting a monkey and making an impossible
choice. Explain why you think he ends the book with this story and his answer to
the question. How does it capture his entire experience?