Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

The Story of an Innocent Murderer Imagine your life being turned upside down. One minute, everything is business as usual: you go to work and school and you are surrounded by friends and family. The next minute, everything becomes chaotic and hopeless: you cannot find your family and death surrounds you. Ishmael Beah’s life turned upside down as an innocent child when a war began between the government of Sierra Leona and rebels who wanted to overthrow the government. Beah is captured by the government and is brainwashed using drugs into becoming a ruthless child soldier, focused on avenging the deaths of his family by rebel hands. Beah tells the events of his past in his memoir, A Long Way Gone, by recalling multiple stories and myths that

As an innocent child, Beah, nor did any of the children in Sierra Leone, did not have any idea that the majority of them would become child soldiers. They would not only be touched by war, but they would be at the epicenter of the war, fighting on the front lines while raping and pillaging villages. Beah and his older brother, Junior, along with another friend left their village to walk to a neighboring one to rap together at a talent show. Not long after they arrived in Mattru Jong, they received news from their friends that their home village has been attacked by rebels, marking the start of war in Sierra Leone. Beah exclaims that they left their village without thinking to “say goodbye or tell anyone we were going that day. [Beah] didn’t know that we were leaving home, never to return” (Beah). They were innocent children whose normal lives drastically changed in a matter of moments without any

Mistaken as child soldiers, Beah and his group are captured by a village. They are most likely mistaken as child soldiers because the chief of the village heard stories of groups of children attacking and pillaging villages. However, a cassete tape of rap music falls out of Beah’s pocket. The chief listens to the tape, asking for an explanation how they received the music. Beah tells the story of his youth, explaining how him and his brother formed a rap group with some friends. The chief commands Beah to perform some of the rap songs on the cassette, and Beah complies. After his performance, the chief “was impressed with [Beah’s] dancing and found the singing ‘interesting’” (Beah 87). The chief realizes that Beah and the other boys were not rebels or soldiers, but simply children running from conflict. Beah’s performance allows the chief to realize that not all of the children of Sierra Leone have become savage murderers, and some are still