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Strength In A Long Way Gone

648 Words3 Pages

Carson Edwards
English I
Ms. Thaden
10 February 2023

Family Provides Strength
Twelve-year-old soldiers, blinded by cocaine, violence, and war, can only find strength through the love of family. Ishmael Beah, in his book, A Long Way Gone, is struggling through the war but keeps going toward the ultimate goal of seeing his family again, proving how the unfailing love of family will give one the strength to persevere through the hardest times. This book shows the instinctual longing for the family during times of need.
Beah remembers a quote from his father during the beginning half of his war journey. This helped Beah to continue surviving when he recalled his father saying, “When I was very little…’If you are alive, there is hope for a better …show more content…

Before Beah said this quote, he figured out that his whole family died, and he wasn't able to see them again. Gasemu did not allow the boys to go into the village earlier, but this ultimately saved Beah's life. Beah then says he would have rather seen his family and die than wait and be alive without seeing them. This shows how much family means to Beah. Beah now knows he must keep moving for his own life. Being willing to die for the chance to see his family again is a momentous statement, but Beah truly had this …show more content…

This is by drugs and brainwashing from his superiors, but also by missing his family and wanting revenge. Beah went into the army with bad intentions but found the truth in retrospect saying, “I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end...”(Beah 199). Beah loves his family so much that he will kill to avenge them. His love of family, even if this is not morally right, makes him want to stay alive and kill everyone that is relatively related to the deaths of his family. Even though killing people isn't the best way to go about revenge, it shows how far Ishmael will

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