A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

Introduction-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. A conversion with his classmates at the United Nations International High School

2. Sierra Leone (Chapter 1)

3. His mother (Chapter 3)

4. They find the village decimated (Chapter 4)

Short-Answer Response

1. They went back to retrieve money, but they ended up not needing it because they aren’t able to buy anything (Chapter 4).

2. It shows the contrast between Ishmael’s life in Sierra Leone and his life now in New York City (Chapters 1-4).

3. The soldiers had already left because they knew that they would be outnumbered.

Chapters 5-9

Reading Check

1. A young boy recognizes Ishmael and Junior from a performance/the name of a rap group on a cassette in Ishmael’s pocket (Chapter 6).

2. The imam (Chapter 7)

3. A month (Chapter 8)

4. From his time at the Centennial Secondary School (Chapter 8)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. It suggests that people are kind to one another, even amidst all of the violence around them (Chapter 5).

2. Other villagers see groups of young boys traveling together as part of the RUF, so they worry that Ishmael and his friends are rebels (Chapter 6).

3. He constantly feels anxious and vulnerable, afraid that the RUF will kill him while often being mistaken for them (Chapters 5-9).

4. To protect their host who wishes to remain anonymous (Chapter 9)

Chapters 10-13

Reading Check

1. He loved to play pranks on his brother (Chapter 10).

2. In the attic (Chapter 10)

3. To avoid danger (Chapter 10)

4. A man from his village (Chapter 11)

5. Sheku and Josiah, two seven-year-old boys (Chapter 12)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. He has become more pessimistic. He wishes only to survive. (Chapter 10)

2. He means that he is becoming less and less himself as he encounters a dangerous situation (Chapter 10).

3. It shows how the boys have become suspicious of others as a result of the violence they’ve experienced (Chapter 10).

4. He wishes he could have been reunited with his family even if that meant dying with them (Chapter 10).

5. It is a drug, and it causes him to panic, making his surroundings spin (Chapter 13).

Chapters 14-17

Reading Check

1. Violent movies like Rambo (Chapter 14)

2. Because of his ability to remain hidden and to organize a raid without being noticed (Chapter 16)

3. Esther (Chapter 16)

4. He receives a cassette tape of rap music (Chapter 17).

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What provides a short-term solution are “soldierly activities” that include using marijuana, “brown brown,” and addictive amphetamines (Chapter 14).

2. He means that he feels no pity anymore (Chapter 15).

3. He thinks it is disrespectful to be separated from his unit and required to obey citizens (Chapter 15).

4. He has flashbacks to having killed someone (Chapter 17).

Chapters 18-21

Reading Check

1. A rap version of a monologue from Julius Caesar (Chapter 18)

2. Mohamed and his Uncle Tommy (Chapter 18)

3. An elevator (Chapter 19)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. He wants to emphasize that child soldiers can be rehabilitated (Chapter 18).

2. They go to a pub where they dance (Chapter 19).

3. He has only viewed New York City through rap music (Chapter 20).