Book Review Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

From 1991 to 2002 Sierra Leone was terrorized by a civil war of corruption and brutality; the belligerents of such atrocities, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). This book review will analyze the story of Ishmael Beah, an eyewitness to and participant in the civil war. What once went virtually unnoticed by the outside world, is now a subject of major debates, the use of child soldiers. In Sierra Leone child soldiers were used widespread and were heavily manipulated; children had no choice but to submit to either the SLA or RUF and fight for causes they did not necessarily support. Sadly, Ishmael was one of those children, he was forced to either join the SLA or be killed by the RUF while unwillingly leaving

A Long Way Gone is a nonfiction story that follows the life of Ishmael Beah during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Growing up, Ishmael lived in the small village with his father and brother. On his way to a talent show in Mattru Jong with his brother and family friend, they came under attack by a rebel group, forcing them to run for their lives. The young group of boys go through many ordeals in which they end up splitting up and both his brother (as well as his entire family), and friend are killed. Ishmael continues in search of a village supposedly free from fighting; during his travels he meets up with a group of young boys also fleeing the war, he would soon know these boys as his comrades. As the boys flee another group of rebels they enter a village occupied by the Sierra Leone Army (SLA). They would quickly be recruited by the army and forced to fight and ‘serve their country’. After only a week’s worth of training Ishmael enters his first battle; under the influence

Ishmael’s life in Sierra Leone was a series of victimization by rebel forces. He was constantly fleeing for his safety and tormented with the loss of dear family and friends. When it came to a point where Ishmael had to decide between killing or dying, the burden of taking a life was partially subdued by the fact that he was taking revenge against the very people that slaughtered his family, “Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began to flash in my head…I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people. (Beah 119). Violence also became an escape, Ishmael tells about the constant terror of running through forests trying to avoid getting shot by the pursuing rebels. After seeing so much bloodshed, fighting back against the rebels gave Ishmael some solace. He no longer had to run from what he feared the most, he merely had to partaking in