Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Most people live a relatively normal day to day life even if we may have our share of mundane problems. If we are asked to describe our emotions, at the very least we can say happy or sad or fine. When we truly love something or take great pleasure in something, most of us tend to wax poetically. In contrast, there are people like Ishmael Beah whose lives started off quite normal but then it took a major wrong turn. From the tender age of ten years, Beah witnessed the horrors of war in his home country, Sierra Leone. When he was twelve, Beah was separated from his family when the rebels attacked his village. Beah’s journey to escape the rebel forces led him through areas where he witnessed the horrors of war and it led him to war as a child soldier. Life as a child soldier left a deep impact on Ishmael Beah. Although, he recovered physically and mentally as children often do, Beah’s writing shows his difficulty in expressing his emotions. Throughout his memoirs, A Long Way Gone, Beah writes about the events of his life in a very factual tone. As he relates the events of his

The influence of war on his inner turmoil is exhibited when he encounters the wounded family in the van. This was his first real exposure to the casualties of war. He personifies the ground he stood on. He writes that he felt the ground moving beneath his feet (13). Beah feels as if he no longer stands on solid ground because the world he firmly knew has shifted, leaving him dazed and confused. Similarly, when trying to stay ahead of the rebel forces, Beah again turns to nature to express his inner turmoil and emotional upheaval. He writes how the moon followed them and would wait for them “at the other end of dark forests paths”, however, as more nights passed the moon lost its luster (80). This indicates how hopeless Beah felt. The vivid personifications are indicators of the depth of Beah’s