A Long Way Gone Analysis

“I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament.” (Ishmael Beah 218). This quote can be seen as a message about the novel, as Beah is trying to spread awareness with this book, and not let anyone suffer the way he did. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a true story about the author and his first hand experiences of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Theme is defined as the underlying idea or ideas projected throughout a novel. In this particular book the theme is the underlying ideas of humanity, innocence, and survival, before, during, and after the war. Before he is involved in the war Ishmael has a certain level of humanity and
Secondly, during his involvement in the war, Ishmael loses his humanity along with his innocence, and the only way to survive is by joining the military. Lastly after the war, Ishmael regains his humanity, his innocence is restored, and he survives in different ways than he did before and after the war. Ishmael when he writes about these topics in A Long Way Gone is saying that they can be gained, lost, or changed at any time.
To start the story, Ishmael has his humanity, with a certain level of innocence, along with surviving the war in various ways. Ishmael’s humanity is shown to be normal before the war. He first respects cultural values, “‘Now this is good English, the kind that you should be listening to,’ he shouted from the yard. While Father listened to the news, Junior taught us how to move our feet to the beat.” (7). This quote depicts Ishmael and his brother Junior listening to rap, when their father hears he turns on the news instead. In respecting the value of listening to your elders Ishmael and Junior
He lost his humanity and innocence that he once had before the war, and the only chance of survival was through joining the military. This change clearly shows how these ideas can be gained or lost overtime. To contrast Ishmael’s humanity before the war, during the war he is transformed through being in the military. He seeks revenge in everything he does and no longer feels pain for others. His humanity clearly is lost at this point. Ishmael seeks revenge in killing. For example he becomes accustomed to killing and no longer feels any remorse when he kills or fights. To delineate, one day there was a challenge for the soldiers to kill rebel prisoners and Ishmael said he did not, “feel anything’ for him.” in reference to the prisoner. Ishmael later says, “The prisoner was simply another rebel responsible for the death of my family.” (124). All he knew was that the prisoner deserved to die. The revenge seeking technique is very effective in transforming Ishmael into a true soldier while in turn ridding him of his humanity, because it fuels him along with allowing him to feel no remorse. Next, Ishmael’s innocence has also been lost while he was a soldier, His anger fuels him to kill anyone and anything, and with this, killing becomes easy and pain free. Earlier the sergeant encouraged the boys to stab a banana tree with anger as if it were a rebel. Ishmael writes, “‘Remember he