A Long Way Gone is nonfiction story and true story of a boy named Ishmael Beah who is also the author himself. It is about how he becomes a boy soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone. When he was 12 years old, his village was attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends; which at the time he and his friends thought was cool because it came from America. With the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander to all different villages to find food and shelter. They soon begin to struggle to survive, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never thought of doing, such as stealing food from children. Ishmael sees horrific sights, such as a man who was shot …show more content…
When he was a teenager, he ended up spending a year wandering Sierra Leone on the run from the civil war that killed his family. His childhood ended, he resorts to survivalist tactics to stay alive; he steals when he needs to, roams in with a group of boys his own age. He spends long periods of time alone in the forest. At age 13, he is forced to become a soldier for the government's army and is ordered to kill rebel soldiers. Most of the government's army are boys' his age. He witnesses and and commits acts of horror before he is rescued and rehabilitated by UNICEF. He speaks at several international conferences on children and war, including one at the United Nations. He currently lives in New York as of 2015.
Musa- Musa is a Mende boy who was in Mattru Jong when the rebel soldiers attacked. Musa and his father were separated from his mother during the attack. Musa's father ordered him to stay where he was until he could return with Musa's mom. As soon as Musa's father returned to the village, the attack grew in very large and Musa was forced to run for his life. He is one of the the six boys that Ishmael finds in the forest after his month of being isolated. He is short but somewhat big, he is also a good storyteller. He is forced to become a soldier by the government , but is sadly killed in the very first