A Long Way Gone Essay
In the book, A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier written by Ishmael Beah. This autobiographical story tells a story about him and how he grew up in Sierra Leone during the country’s civil war. Sierra Leone descended into a brutal and chaotic civil war between Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and corrupt Action Peoples Congress (APC). The conflict lasted most of the 1990s and, in common with the civil war in Liberia, became intimately linked with the use of child soldiers. Sierra Leone is a former British colony in West Africa. This book was very interesting because, the main character himself (Ishmael) takes us on a journey. Ishmael was separated at the age of 12 from his family by an invasion of rebels in his town Mattru
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Beah challenges all the readers in the American to question the glorification we put on war. We assume that the struggles we fight are ideological compared to the savage civil conflict in Sierra Leone. We assume that killing with laser-guided missiles is somehow more humane than slitting a man's throat. But in addition to its emphasis on the beauty of human resilience and hope, the central message is that, hatred and violence consume everything in a society, especially children. The review from the Washington Post says, “Everyone in the world should read this book. Not just because it contains an amazing story, or because it's our moral, bleeding-heart duty, or because it's clearly written. We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” It shows how we are so unaware of what’s going around the world and Beah gives us an up close look in his written memoir. As well Times say, “A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir.” Times agree and states how people can change within a blink of an eye, in Beah’s childhood memoir shows how the book develops Ishmael character and view of the chaos that surround him to understand how he was sucked into being a
Beah challenges all the readers in the American to question the glorification we put on war. We assume that the struggles we fight are ideological compared to the savage civil conflict in Sierra Leone. We assume that killing with laser-guided missiles is somehow more humane than slitting a man's throat. But in addition to its emphasis on the beauty of human resilience and hope, the central message is that, hatred and violence consume everything in a society, especially children. The review from the Washington Post says, “Everyone in the world should read this book. Not just because it contains an amazing story, or because it's our moral, bleeding-heart duty, or because it's clearly written. We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” It shows how we are so unaware of what’s going around the world and Beah gives us an up close look in his written memoir. As well Times say, “A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir.” Times agree and states how people can change within a blink of an eye, in Beah’s childhood memoir shows how the book develops Ishmael character and view of the chaos that surround him to understand how he was sucked into being a