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Essay On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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A Long Way Gone is a memoir of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, who struggles to keep his humanity. Ishmael Beah, the author, achieved success once he went off to speak at the United Nations conference and when he realized that he could not go back to the war.
Beah achieved success when he went off to New York and spoke at the United Nations conference. As Beah sat around the conference listening to all the other children that represented their country, Beah sat proudly “behind the Sierra Leone name plaque.. [he] had a speech that had been written for [him] in Freetown, but [he] decided to speak from [his] heart, instead. [He] talked briefly about [his] experience[s] and [his] hope that the war would end” (Beah 199). At this moment in time Beah is in New York speaking for his country and for the children, his friends, that are still fighting in the war; he is trying to help figure out a way to get those kids to safely and what the rest of the country can do to help. Beah speaking “from [his] heart” is exactly what helped him get to the United Nation conference and what help him get his humanity back; so it was only good for him to do it when it came to helping his country. …show more content…

One night, once Beah was back in Sierra Leone, the rebels had reached Freetown, both the rebels and the soldier filled up the city and Beah thought to himself, “I couldn’t return to my previous life. I [don’t] think I could make it out alive this time” (Beah 203). Before Beah got his humanity back, he would have loved to go back to the war, because that was all he knew for about three years of his life; but one can see that he has really changed because he knows that he won’t be able to survive the war with his new found humanity. He has achieved success because he does not want to go back to the war, he wants to continue his better life; by the end of the book he is able to free himself of his war

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