Themes In Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

Most people assume that their lives are constant from day to day, the same routine goes to school or work, some afternoon activities and so on. But what most of us don’t imagine is that we are so close to the edge, tragedies that seem foreign to us appear from nowhere and turn our lives upside down. In long way gone, a story of a child soldier named Ishmael Beah, many tragedies, events has bestowed upon him, and he to choose to die or survive. These tragedies have transformed him from innocent child to ruthless child soldier to rehabilitate adult with the scars of war that destroyed his country.

This is the true story narrated by the author Ishmael Beah in which depicts how at the age of twelve he was stranded by a tragic war in his homeland

Ishmael illustrates this point as follows "My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed."[126]. Throughout the book, the author conveys this message that he has to make decisions to survive as illustrated in the following passage “ We could not find anything substantial to eat. We got hungrier day after day to the point that is our stomachs were hurting and our vision blurred at times. We had no choice but to sneak back into Mattru Jong, along with some people we encountered on the path, to get some money we had left behind so that we could buy food.” [27]. Ishmael buried all his emotions to survive, the author makes this point over and over "In the swamp, we ran past people who were stuck in the mud, past handicapped people who couldn't be helped, for anyone who stopped to do so was risking his own life." [24]. The Author makes the point that survival makes people only think about themselves to remain alive and survival emotion overrules every other emotion "We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to. That night we were so hungry that we stole people's food while they slept. It was the only way to get through the night." [29]. The author makes the point that in order to survive you can’t trust others because when the going gets tough, everyone will choose to save herself or himself. "I had learned to survive and take care of myself. I had done just that for most of my short life, with no one to trust, and frankly, I liked being alone, since it made surviving easier." [153] The author shows that Ishmael wants to so survive so much that he wants to be alone because it is easier to survive without having to worry about someone