811 English
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Ishmael Beah sees the world in a different perspective than most people have seen. In the book, "A Long Way Gone", Ishmael is trapped into a society in which kids are trained and forced into a bloody war. This maltreatment is what the soldiers are obligated to, and one of these teens being Ishmael, he grows up with a sense that all is savage and brutal. Growing up in the bloodshed that is Sierra Leone, Ishmael learns that life is bleak and full of danger that may end with him even losing his own life, which leads me to believe that Ishmael is a fighter and tenacious.
Ishmael learned to sharpen his instincts as a child, since the war had traumatized him to a feeling that death is right around the corner. You normally wouldn't have to look every corner, not sleep nights, double check behind yourself, and wait until a loud noise stops, because safety is everywhere for us. Ishmael does all those things, because as a twelve year old in a battlefield at Sierra Leone, he isn't safe. At one point in the book, young Ishmael's area is attacked and ransacked by enemies, and he is stunned when he finds out that he has to leave his family in order to stay alive. "It was during that attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior." Junior was Ishmael's older brother, and he was separated from Ishmael. At this point, Ishmael only relied on the trust of his friends and no one else. The community that he was in when he got separated from his family was also perishing from the rebellion, "Mothers lost their children, whose confused, sad cries coincided with the the gunshots. Families were separated and left behind everything they had worked for their whole lives." Ishmael was too young to comprehend the seriousness that this was, and like a sponge, he absorbed all of it in. The lesson that Ishmael learned at this point of his life was to expect the unexpected.
As a teenager, the war was the pinnacle of his life, since it was that at this age he would begin to understand what was happening around him and to him, and Beah begins to accept the tragedies knowing that the moment of freedom and peace may be a long way gone. For example, the moment he was finally going to reach to his family, a place he was desiring to reach ever since he lost contact, was taken away because another attack consumed the district into piles of bodies. This is life-changing for Beah because at this point he realizes how grim this entire experience may be, "I didn't care. I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them." Stuck in this mindset, Beah was getting used to the violence, and in the next few years, he decides to confront the challenge of rehabilitation. In other words, Beah will attempt to forget about the life he has been living for the past decade or so and relearn how to live in a society. This is extremely difficult, as having been discommoded with the struggle of surviving every minute of his life and flash-backing to the children that he might of killed, Beah strives to be in the now, "But we were still traumatized, and now that we had time to think, the fastened mantle of our war memories slowly began to open." This part of the memoir emphasized the fact that it will be extremely difficult to forget the bloody kills and deaths that a young man had to experience. At these moments, though, Ishmael works to his fullest to stay strong, and will do whatever it takes to succeed.
Ishmael learned to sharpen his instincts as a child, since the war had traumatized him to a feeling that death is right around the corner. You normally wouldn't have to look every corner, not sleep nights, double check behind yourself, and wait until a loud noise stops, because safety is everywhere for us. Ishmael does all those things, because as a twelve year old in a battlefield at Sierra Leone, he isn't safe. At one point in the book, young Ishmael's area is attacked and ransacked by enemies, and he is stunned when he finds out that he has to leave his family in order to stay alive. "It was during that attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior." Junior was Ishmael's older brother, and he was separated from Ishmael. At this point, Ishmael only relied on the trust of his friends and no one else. The community that he was in when he got separated from his family was also perishing from the rebellion, "Mothers lost their children, whose confused, sad cries coincided with the the gunshots. Families were separated and left behind everything they had worked for their whole lives." Ishmael was too young to comprehend the seriousness that this was, and like a sponge, he absorbed all of it in. The lesson that Ishmael learned at this point of his life was to expect the unexpected.
As a teenager, the war was the pinnacle of his life, since it was that at this age he would begin to understand what was happening around him and to him, and Beah begins to accept the tragedies knowing that the moment of freedom and peace may be a long way gone. For example, the moment he was finally going to reach to his family, a place he was desiring to reach ever since he lost contact, was taken away because another attack consumed the district into piles of bodies. This is life-changing for Beah because at this point he realizes how grim this entire experience may be, "I didn't care. I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them." Stuck in this mindset, Beah was getting used to the violence, and in the next few years, he decides to confront the challenge of rehabilitation. In other words, Beah will attempt to forget about the life he has been living for the past decade or so and relearn how to live in a society. This is extremely difficult, as having been discommoded with the struggle of surviving every minute of his life and flash-backing to the children that he might of killed, Beah strives to be in the now, "But we were still traumatized, and now that we had time to think, the fastened mantle of our war memories slowly began to open." This part of the memoir emphasized the fact that it will be extremely difficult to forget the bloody kills and deaths that a young man had to experience. At these moments, though, Ishmael works to his fullest to stay strong, and will do whatever it takes to succeed.
As a pre-adult going through a unstable rehabilitation, Beah decides to take the route in which he will learn from others of how to live in a stable society. In this case, Ishmael is placed in his uncle's home that's fairly far away from the attacks. Living with his uncle, Beah values company from someone who is willing to give it to you. Unfortunately, Beah's uncle was only able to live for so long, "I was always losing everything that meant something to me" "Why did this happen to us in these difficult times?" Beah knows he loses what is dearest to him, but he is an indefatigable person who won't stop until he knows what's right, what he should value the most and find the most important things in life and prioritize.
In retrospect, Ishmael has illustrated to us that growing up in his conditions is transformational because he had to live in the bloodshed of losing friends and family through killing others. By seeing the world of violence through Ishmael Beah's eyes, we can see how difficult it can be to expect the unexpected, stay strong, and be determined to never give up.
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