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Long Way Gone Reflection

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Reading A Long Way Gone was an introductory for me to the issues facing children in war stricken areas. Though I knew that these atrocities happened, I had never gotten down deep into the nitty gritty details. Ishmael Beah does a remarkable job telling the story of this difficult period of time in his young life in a way. He incites emotion and conscious deliberation within oneself about right and wrong in regard to the use young people in warfare. My experience with this text showed me though the writer my not show the expertise of prominent writers who have come before him, he is an amazing storyteller with the ability to make his audience feel the pain that he felt. Beah’s style of writing is unusually matter of fact in a way that reminds me of several texts by Ernest Hemingway. …show more content…

Though it may often times be necessary for a country to employ young boys in the army to fight for a noble cause or to protect the values that they stand for, the future of an entire generation will be at risk. If the nation’s youth are psychologically damaged beyond repair, then the end result is that the enemy has destroyed the nation without even having to win the physical victory. Also, does the nobility of the cause make the difference in determining if using children to fight such battles is right or wrong? When we think back to the United States’ revolutionary war, most people would probably say that us having used young boys to fight wasn’t that big of an issue because we were fighting for freedom. However, if the battles had taken the form of those we see happening in current nations, we may not feel so comfortable with it. The war in Sierra Leone was incredibly more gruesome, but was the cause they were fighting for any less

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