Ishmael's Journey In A Long Way Gone

Through transitions from dark, disconnecting thoughts to hopeful, ambitious thoughts, characters from A Long Way Gone, The Joy Luck Club, and The Alchemist, all show perseverance through trying times by looking deeper within themselves and into their inner power, which reveals how much strength each survivor hides underneath.

Amid journeys and hardships, Ishmael and An-Mei find themselves lost or disconnected from their families, which can be heavy and unmanageable to them. After Ishmael loses his family, he instantly goes into a dark place. Ishmael’s anger is underlying pain, and he took it out on Gasemu before he even had time to think: “If we hadn’t stopped to rest on the hill, if we hadn’t run into Gasemu, I would have seen my family,

After experiencing the beginning of war, Ishmael remembers something that his father used to say to him, that would help him have hope in his current situation. Ishmael remembers hearing that if he is “ ‘alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing food left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.’ I thought about these words during my journey, and they kept me moving even when I didn’t know where I was going. Those words became the vehicle that drove my spirit forward and made it stay alive ” (Beah 54). Beah uses positive words such as “hope” and “drove” to convey the realization that he has just made. Using the words that his father had once given him, he discovers the inner strength that he needs to get him through war. During war, it is hard to keep thoughts straight and away from negativity, and to obtain the willingness to keep going. To compare, Rose finds her voice in her marriage. Ted is trying to get her to sign the divorce papers, but she does not agree with his decisions. So, she goes against him and finally stands up to him using her inner power: “and the answer, the one that was important above everything else, ran through my body and fell from my lips: ‘you can’t just pull me out of your life and throw me away’” (Tan 196). Rose uses “ran” and “fell” to describe the sudden rush of power that went through her. Suddenly finding her underlying authority, she finally tells Ted her feelings. She had never spoken up for herself, and for most of her marriage, she has been a “ghost. In comparison to Ishmael, Santiago also finds a drive to continue. When faced with the challenge of becoming wind, Santiago believes in himself. He “reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw