Book Report On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah feared becoming a child soldier again when Sierra Leone’s government was overthrown by the rebels, he gets haunted by the memories of the past and what has happened throughout his life back in Sierra Leone. Back when he was a child soldier in Sierra Leone all he did in his free time was take in drugs and watched war movies which got him use to the blood and violence that he experienced while he was part of the war. He committed crimes that nobody would normally do, like torturing others in cruel ways, but he was brainwashed and didn’t know anything else besides war. He was trained to kill and that’s all there was to it for his life back then. But that changed once he got rehabilitated and was able to live among normal civilians.

First of all, child soldiers go to extremes for such little things like having to ask for thing to be given to them. In the book by Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, an actual child soldier who is now rehabilitated shared his experiences through the war in Sierra Leone. It says, “We placed a bucket over the cook’s head and pushed him around the kitchen until he burned his hand on a hot boiling pot and agreed to put more milk in our tea,” (Beah, 2007). This demonstrates how dangerous they can be to innocent people, even those that are trying to help. They hurt those no matter what, for their own desires and sometimes they just do this for their own entertainment. Although they can be rehabilitated like Ishmael, most times this does not happen in countries like Sierra Leone through the influence they have from drugs and after being brainwashed, they will often go back into war or they get captured again and become child soldier once more. It is very rare for someone that went through war and has become a child soldier to go back to having a normal and peaceful life as their minds are scarred for life. Also, they threaten and disrespect those around them, although they are innocent for doing nothing to them. The article “The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo”, is about deciding if the past child soldier, Khadr, should be prosecuted or not. It says, “Former interrogators and Dr. Welner testified that when Khadr was angry at his guards, he would recall how he had killed a U.S. soldier and that would make him happy,” (Prasow, 2015). This just shows how dangerous child soldiers can be if they are let out in public, you could push against them and they might threaten you or actually inflict pain on you. Anything you do can possibly get them angry because they look down upon those who have not been in war. They feel nothing about those who haven’t gone through what they have, all they care are