Book Report On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

War is destructive and tears apart the most important parts of life. Ishmael Beah was a boy in Sierra Leone when a civil war was taking place Ishmael wrote a book about his experiences titled A Long Way Gone. The book is about how Ishmael went from a boy to a soldier. Ishmael lived happily in a village when it was attacked by the rebels RUF he fled from village to village. Ishmael eventually ended up by the Army and joined them to fight the rebels. Ishmael was put into rehabilitation and lived with his Uncle until they were attacked again. Ishmael went from victim of war running away in fear of being killed to a soldier who raided villages. Ishmael is a victim of war running away soldiers in an attempt to survive. After Ishmael was chased

All of the young soldiers admired the lieutenant they all wanted to be like him even if it meant killing the Ishmael stated, “The morning after the lieutenant's speech, we proceeded to practice killing the prisoners the way the lieutenant had done it” (Beah 124). The boys were starstruck by the lieutenants presence that they would do anything he says or do to be like him this is why they blindly raided villages and killed captured rebels. They were all slowly being manipulated into becoming killing machines they were just as bad as RUF. The army would end up in battles against the rebels with civilians in the crossfire but neither sides even attempt to save them Ishmael said, “One of these raids, we had captured a few rebels after a long gunfight and a lot of civilian casualties” (Beah 123). From the citizens point of view they would not know who was the army or rebels they were getting shot at from both ways. Anyone in the middle would have been terrified and neither of the sides tried to help them live. They did not care if a few citizens died it only mattered if they won the battle. Ishmael was turned into a ruthless soldier and forgot about the pain war has brought him and inflicted in onto