A Long Way Gone Analysis
Ryan Gamel
Period 2
10/19/11
A Long Way Gone From Innocent
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a story of a boy soldier and his journey throughout his country's civil war and his forced transition from childhood to adulthood. A long way gone is a perfect title for the book because throughout his struggles he travels farther and farther from his innocence. When a boy like Ishmael is exposed to the horrors and tragedy of war at such a young age it is only human nature to adjust to the environment around them. "I would always tell people that I believe that children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance" (pg 169). Ishmael learned how to survive amongst constant strife and brutality. He breaks his moral codes in order to survive and looses his innocence along the way.
In order for young naive boy like Ishmael to stay …show more content…
alive in his home country he justifies his actions in any way he can to satisfy his conscience and the morals he learned before the war. One way he does this is by connecting the rebels he is fighting to the murders of his family. “I imagined capturing several rebels at once, locking them inside a house, sprinkling gasoline on it, and tossing a match. We watch it burn and I laugh” (pg 113). This exemplifies his sudden loss of innocence caused by the tragedies and atrocities that have shaped him in to the weapon that he is now. Being influenced by the people around him and feeding on the other soldiers violent intentions has turned him into a cold hearted killer seeking revenge. Throughout all of his struggles Ishmael becomes increasingly untrusting and is gripped with paranoia.“This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy” (pg 37). Paranoia is a very mature emotion that some people acquire after many years. It is strange for a young boy to have such a high level of distrust and unease.
Ishmael doesn't do things that normal kids would do, and in a sense is brainwashed by his commanders and drugs to a point where he no longer sees drug use as morally corrupt.“In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square, I took turns at guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing, brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread out on the table, and of course the white capsules, as I had become addicted to them” (Page 121). The intoxicating drugs that the commanders give to the kids alter their mind and make them do things that no child would do if sober or not addicted to drugs. Keeping the kids in a state of constant intoxication makes it easier for the commanders to manipulate and use the no longer innocent kids as deadly weapons. Doing drugs and worrying about getting killed all the time is not something a young boy should be worried about and it is stripping the boys from their childhood and innocence.
When Ishmael first saw the rebels tormenting the old man with blank bullets he was disgusted at how cruel people could be to one another.
“he put his gun to the old man's forehead and continued... the old man closed his eyes and began to sob... the old man at this point was unable to speak... the rebel pulled the trigger, and like lightning I saw the spark of fire that came form the muzzle. I turned my face to the ground. My knees started trembling and my heartbeat grew faster and louder. When I looked back, the old man was circling around like a dog trying to catch a fly on its tail”(pg 33) As shocked as Ishmael was about the cruelty and tragedy that the rebels put the old man through. Surprisingly not much later he himself was doing similar things to people for no other reason than the rebels were on the other side of the civil war. Ishmael has learned how to survive in the violent civil war that he fell in the middle of. In order to survive in the war he lost something that he will never get back; he lost his innocence and his childhood. Ishmael had a violent grown man's personality trapped in a 15 year old's
body.
Period 2
10/19/11
A Long Way Gone From Innocent
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a story of a boy soldier and his journey throughout his country's civil war and his forced transition from childhood to adulthood. A long way gone is a perfect title for the book because throughout his struggles he travels farther and farther from his innocence. When a boy like Ishmael is exposed to the horrors and tragedy of war at such a young age it is only human nature to adjust to the environment around them. "I would always tell people that I believe that children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance" (pg 169). Ishmael learned how to survive amongst constant strife and brutality. He breaks his moral codes in order to survive and looses his innocence along the way.
In order for young naive boy like Ishmael to stay …show more content…
alive in his home country he justifies his actions in any way he can to satisfy his conscience and the morals he learned before the war. One way he does this is by connecting the rebels he is fighting to the murders of his family. “I imagined capturing several rebels at once, locking them inside a house, sprinkling gasoline on it, and tossing a match. We watch it burn and I laugh” (pg 113). This exemplifies his sudden loss of innocence caused by the tragedies and atrocities that have shaped him in to the weapon that he is now. Being influenced by the people around him and feeding on the other soldiers violent intentions has turned him into a cold hearted killer seeking revenge. Throughout all of his struggles Ishmael becomes increasingly untrusting and is gripped with paranoia.“This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy” (pg 37). Paranoia is a very mature emotion that some people acquire after many years. It is strange for a young boy to have such a high level of distrust and unease.
Ishmael doesn't do things that normal kids would do, and in a sense is brainwashed by his commanders and drugs to a point where he no longer sees drug use as morally corrupt.“In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square, I took turns at guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing, brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread out on the table, and of course the white capsules, as I had become addicted to them” (Page 121). The intoxicating drugs that the commanders give to the kids alter their mind and make them do things that no child would do if sober or not addicted to drugs. Keeping the kids in a state of constant intoxication makes it easier for the commanders to manipulate and use the no longer innocent kids as deadly weapons. Doing drugs and worrying about getting killed all the time is not something a young boy should be worried about and it is stripping the boys from their childhood and innocence.
When Ishmael first saw the rebels tormenting the old man with blank bullets he was disgusted at how cruel people could be to one another.
“he put his gun to the old man's forehead and continued... the old man closed his eyes and began to sob... the old man at this point was unable to speak... the rebel pulled the trigger, and like lightning I saw the spark of fire that came form the muzzle. I turned my face to the ground. My knees started trembling and my heartbeat grew faster and louder. When I looked back, the old man was circling around like a dog trying to catch a fly on its tail”(pg 33) As shocked as Ishmael was about the cruelty and tragedy that the rebels put the old man through. Surprisingly not much later he himself was doing similar things to people for no other reason than the rebels were on the other side of the civil war. Ishmael has learned how to survive in the violent civil war that he fell in the middle of. In order to survive in the war he lost something that he will never get back; he lost his innocence and his childhood. Ishmael had a violent grown man's personality trapped in a 15 year old's
body.