A Long Way Gone Analysis

By sharing his experiences in A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah helps increase awareness of the events that have occurred, and continue to occur today. Beah provides an intriguing perspective on the Sierra Leone Civil War. A Long Way Gone depicts the fascinating life story of a real person and is not simply summarizing a series of events. Ishmael Beah’s wrote A Long Way Gone to bring awareness to the many terrors of war, and to acknowledge the numerous people who aided him and he accomplished this by sharing an different perspective and a jarring story.
Beah tells a compelling story because it allows the reader see the war from the inside; to feel all of the emotion or lack of emotion, see the horrors, and understand the reasoning behind what was happening. This inside view comes from the particular events included in the story. Beah had to choose which parts of his vast experience to include in this memoir and it is interesting to see the events that he selected as the most important. He did not dwell upon the actual war for as long as one would have suspected, but instead describes both the before and after of the war. Beah focused mostly on his experience with rehabilitation, but this does not mean that he neglected to explain the war and the
Due to the help of many ordinary heroes who aided him Beah was able to share his story today. He recognizes and gives thanks to those people by sharing his story. One of the first people to help Beah was a boy from his village. Beah did not even know him, and yet “he saved [Beah’s life]” (39). Beah never sees him again so by acknowledging this event Beah is able to finally thank the boy. Beah uses this technique of showing his gratitude numerous times throughout A Long Way Gone. This may not have been a conscious decision that Beah made, but nevertheless he does acknowledge numerous people who helped