How do people comprehend war when everything they know has seemed to vanish, before they can image? A Long Way Gone is heartbreaking memoir written by Ishmael Beah. The book takes place in Sierra Leone during the time of the civil war. The war was fought over economic profit, rather than political and social pandemonium, even though it was claimed that the war was fought over civil and social reasons. There were 2 sides to this war, the RUF and the Government. The RUF was an organized rebel army; they fought the war to gain control of the country’s diamond mines. While the Government fought the war to defend the country, as well as to stop the petulant outbreaks and chaos the rebels were causing throughout the land. Many people were inflicted by this war. Families were destroyed. Children were forced to join the army for protection and to avoid starvation. No one was safe; everything …show more content…
Ishmael who was once a peaceful, innocent little boy, was transformed into a man killing machine like most children. The civil war in Sierra Leone had malformed many people’s lives, personality, and faith, bringing them to extreme measures. Families were torn apart by the war, everything had changed. Homes that used to once carry families and joyful memories were no longer there, everything was demolished. Like Ishmael many children were manipulated to join the war to avenge the deaths of their families, making the war more chaotic that it should have been. Looking back on the book it is safe to say that the main conflict of the war seems to be because of revenge; either the RUF of Government wanted to seem less powerful than the other. This book teaches us as readers that revenge is never the answer to life, it causes more harm than it’s