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Long Way Gone Fear

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Some people call them instincts, but others call them natural tendencies. When people are under pressure, what drives them to make the decisions they make? The novels Night by Elie Wiesel, and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah help demonstrate why people choose to do certain things. Hope for better circumstances and fear of what could possibly happen is what forces people to make the decisions they make.
In the book A Long Way Gone a young innocent boy named Ishmael Beah became a soldier at 13 years old. He encounters lots of situations where he has to choose whether he wants to survive or kill to stay alive. During the story, Ishmael was converted from a young boy into a careless, numb soldier. Ishmael was also separated from his family and all throughout his journey he hoped that he would find his family again. Ishmael’s hope to find his family is what kept him going on his journey. Later in the story, Ishmael found out where his family had supposedly been seen last and right when he got to the village he saw it being burned down and shot up by Rebels and Ishmael realized his family was dead (Beah 117). Later in the story, the army soldiers told Ishmael and others that …show more content…

Hope to be free again influenced the captives so flee away from their owners and even though they knew what would happen if they were caught, they continued. Not only did fugitive slaves have the fear of starvation and capture, but there were also threats presented by their surroundings (Underground Railroad: A Path To Freedom). Even throughout, their journey some of the runaway slaves turned around and went back because they feared being captured again.
Hope and fear are huge parts in the lives of mankind because without hope there would be nothing driving humans to survive or succeed and fear has the power to force humans to make a decision whether it’s a good decision or a bad

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