Ishmael Beah has experienced extreme hardships ever since he was a little boy. Growing up in Sierra Leone during war causes Ishmael’s life to revolve around such. In the nonfiction book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldiers, Ishmael Beah shares personal accounts of what it was like growing up in a period of violence and separation.
Ishmael and his family live in a small village called Mattru Jong. When Ishmael is twelve-years-old, his village is attacked by rebels. In the quickness of the attack, everyone panics in an attempt to flee the area in order to find safety. In this process, however, Ishmael is separated from his parents and tries to stay together with his older brother, Junior, and his friends. The group of boys wander from village to village in search of basic necessities of life including food, water, and shelter.
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As well as necessities, the boys are in search to find their families. Along their journey of avoiding contact with the rebels, Junior is permanently separated from Ishmael and Ishmael’s friends die of bad physical and mental health. When the boys finally are about to arrive at the village where their families are, a group of rebels set the village on fire and the village burns before the boys’ eyes. This leaves the kids to have no further hope or purpose to continue on their journey to escape