Differences Between Night And A Long Way Gone

Have you ever thought about the traumatizing events Elie and Ishmael have experienced? Although both authors experience physical and mental pain, there are differences between them. Ishmael and Elie are two young boys who encounter deadly events which change them as a person; one becomes an unwilling boy soldier while the other is taken in as a prisoner. Both Night and A Long Way Gone tell the story Elie who is a young boy trying to survive as a prisoner of war, while, Ishmael Beah is a boy fighting for his life as a boy soldier; neither boy has control over their situation. “When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and son” (Wiesel 102). This quote represents the gruesome experience Elie has encountered at the Concentration Camp, similar to the challenges Ishmael runs into through his journey.
Ishmael acknowledges that the rebels’ violence has forced himself and others like him to resort to survival tactics. “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything. We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to” (Beah 29). This quote provides evidence how Ishmael had no

“When I was very little, my father used to say, If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” (Beah 54). On the other hand, Elie tends to lose faith when surviving in the concentration camp. “We were all going to die here. All limits had been passed. No one had any strength left. And again the night would be long” (Wiesel 98). Elie doesn’t have the same ambition that Ishmael has, which in the end reveals who had the happier