"A long Way Gone"

0 00Amanda Allen00 00Allen 100Composition 2 00Gina Fournier00March 20, 200800 00 00 00What does a war really look like through the eyes of a child soldier?00 00 00It wasn’t until late 1993, when nothing but blood, flesh and tears took over the country00 00of Sierra Leone. Everything had been destroyed in a blink of an eye….that included human 00lives. Ishmael Beah retold his brutalizing story as a child soldier worldwide, he wanted people to 00become aware of a cause. He wanted the dehumanization of the war on children’s life to come 00to an end.00 00“01i00A long Way Gone”, 02i00inspires individuals to never take anything in life for granted, 00live to the fullest00 00because you will never know when you will be shaking hands with death. This 00story is none the less a disturbing , devastating real life event. Throughout this story Beah was 00put to face00 00death every day. He was fighting for over 2 years in the war as a child and killing 00became part of an everyday activity. It was to kill, or be killed.01i02i00 00Beah was born on November 23, 1980 in Sierra Leone.00 00Growing up his brother and 00friends started a rap group , listening and recited versus of rap music for entertainment. Their 00mother lived 3 miles away00 00with Beah’s youngest brother Ibrahim.00 00Ishmael and Junior his older 00brother lived with their father and step mother.00 00The mother had paid for schooling for Ibrahim, 00and was working to put junior and Ishmael back in school.00 00So in their time at home they worked 00around the house and rapped.00 00Beah always enjoyed visiting00 00his grandmother, she would always 00say things out of the ordinary but seemed to always make sense to him. One quote she recited to 00him constantly among his visits was, “ if you are alive, there is hope00 00for a better day and 00something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will 00 00Allen 200die. “00 00At times the book can be very difficult to read, but Beah’s honesty of how he was 00transformed from a carefree boy who loved hip-hop to a murderer who cared only about staying 00alive, puts readers to face the reality of what he really went through. The Civil War that out 00broke all came too fast.00 00No one knew what to do or where to go , the rebels were everywhere.00Due to the faith00 00that Beah had, he managed to never run out on himself, and pull it all together00through the dreadful time to become a well known author. Beah woke up each and every day 00wondering where his life was going00 00and to survive the war was his goal.00 00Beah never wanted to 00rethink what happened during his life when people would ask00 00him about it, all he really would 00say was “ It was nothing but children traumatized, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. 00Children became the soldiers of choice.” Today as he tries to live his life as a freed soldier, he 00lives knowing he had been given a second life, and tries to live it to the best he can.00 00Many00 00publishers agreed Beah’s story to be remarkable.00 00“Beah’s autobiography is 00unique. Perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to give literary voice to of00 00the 00most distressing phenomena of the late 2001sup^{00th02sup}00 century: The rise of the pubescent warrior killer” 00( The New York Times) . 01i01u00The Publishers Weekly02u02i00 that “ it was a very absorbing story… told in 00clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice. This memoir seems 00destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and (on going) plight of child soldiers in 00conflicts worldwide.”00When Beah and his older brother Junior left the city one day to visit the childhood 00friends, they would of never thought it would have been there last day as a child. He never 00imagined that rebels were going to rob him of family , a00 00home and his childhood.00 00No one 00 00Allen 300expected this to happen but that day Beah was00 00never to see his family again. Thankfully Junior 00was the last of the family he had.00 00The Rebels went from town to town burning villages, killing 00every person that wasn’t a rebel, this included baby’s.00 00It wasn’t just and easy death it was a long, 00painful death these people suffered. No one understood why it was them that would have to 00suffer in life. Quite piticulary there was no absolute reason for this war. Throughout the war 00Beah lost Junior00 00and some friends he managed to make along his way to survival.00 00This never 00stopped Beah from continuing each day. Beah wandered a land unrecognizable by violence. 00When the rebels captured people they mad family members, such as a son and mother 00have00 00intercourse, they00 00chopped new born baby’s in half and nothing stopped them from opening 00a pregnant women and killing the unborn child. They never showed any sympathy or remorse. 00The rebels kept on with their killing spree. Beah was captured two times by the rebels and was 00able to escape with a few other boys by the rebels distraction. Eventually Beah was captured by 00the government army at the age of 13.00 00Beah was nothing but a gentle hearted boy that somehow00 00found he was capable of00 00really violent crimes.00 00“ The Villages that they captured turned into t00heir bases, the forest they slept in became their homes. The squad became his family and his gun 00was his provider and protecter .” ( 01i00A long Way Gone Page 12602i00)Eventually after fighting 00throughout the war , coming face to face with death everyday , he was removed from the war at 0016 by the UNICEF. He eventually was put into a rehabilitation center where it took a long time 00to overcome his tragic past.00 00 00At the rehabilitation center Beah was told each day by staff members “ what happen was 00never your fault”. He often got mad about this , as time passed he started to believe it.00 00Truly it 00wasn’t Beah’s fault what he did was everything he needed to do to survive. Beah started giving 00speeches at the rehabilitation center in front of reporters.00 00The rehabilitation center was able to 00 00Allen 400locate Beah’s uncle the only one left out of the family, and was taken in to live with them for 00awhile. The owner of the rehabilitation center approached Beah and asked him to Fly to New 00York00 00to give presentations Beah soon accepted the offer and was on his way to America. When 00arriving in the United States Beah’s reaction to where he lived to what he was experiencing was 00nothing like he ever has before. Soon Beah was adopted by and American family and lives in 00New York City and at the age of 26 he retold his tragic experiences.00 00Beah never understood why he was the chosen one within his family. Why he was the 00one that survived? Why after everything he wasn’t left back in Sierra Leone still fighting in the 00army. There was never and exact answer to any of these questions. Until he written his book no 00one ever knew the full story of his life. Still to him he sees it as an awful dream.00 01i00A long Way Gone 02i00 00was one of the most inspiring true life stories I’ve read. The book is 00very well recommended. At first I wasn’t able to read a complete page but then I thought to my 00self, “this is all real, that could have been you”.00 00Readers come aware of how life was really like 00for Beah as a child. War through the eyes a child is traumatizing. As much as he never wanted to 00remember everything that happened it will always be with him.00 00He overcame death00 00several 00times and managed to never run out on his faith.00 00“As he moves on from his childhood days the 00more he begins to forgive himself for becoming a killer”. ( Beah , ( 2000)When Good Comes 00From Bad) This story is a rare childhood of someone who endured hell and actually survived and 00was willing to reencounter all of this. He was nothing but a strong person mentally and 00physically and will never take his life for granted because back in his country everyone has seen 00death or experienced it.00 00WORKS CITED00Beah, Ishmael ( 2007 ). 01i00A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier02i00. Sarah Crichton Books00UNICEF, 01i00Youth Leadership profiles. 02i00Retrieved February 15, 200700Beah, Ishmael ( 2000) 01u00When Good Comes From Bad02u00, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation01u00Global Young Leadership Conference02u00 200702br
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