Long Way Gone

Throughout the story, I was not sure what to expect. It is interesting to think about my whole world and the bubble I live in. There are not many times that I have thought about what my life would be like if it were different. If I had grwn up in a different time, place, or even within a different family. My life, I think, is pretty normal, and I believe everyone has the same or somewhere close to. It was not until a few years ago’, that I stepped out of my bubble and realized that not everything is as cookie cutter. The book, “A Long Way Gone” is a great example of that and has made me realize how sheltered I am and how easy it is for me to forget about the world. And it is not as if I don’t think bad things happen but when I read a story like this I can get a glimpse into something different and not normal.

To think about children soldiers is very sad to me. To read about a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, and to know that he endured so much throughout his life and has turned into a author is astounding. Now 33, Beah is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who has portrayed his life to us. Throughout the book I felt the fear, sadness, heartache, and even deadness and though I cannot understand what it feels like nor can I relate it is as if he has shared his life.

At the beginning of the book we think that his life is fairly normal and is doing normal things but that is abruptly put to a halt when rebels come and kill his family and he is left to fend for his own on the run at the age of 12. He had nowhere to go or to turn so he kept on running. Eventually, by the age of 13, Beah is taken into “captivity” and turned into a child soldier. He was not to do anything but obey and pretty much put everything about himself: memories, personality and friendships on hold because he was having to do what many would not dream of. He killed many people. Eventually he, along with many others, were sent off to a city where they were told they were no longer needed. For a child I could not imagine what that would feel like. To be taught one way and to have to shut it off completely. At the age of 13 children are just starting to develop and think for themselves. I wanted to cry when I thought that these people, the men he was with, decided that he was no longer needed.

The only saving thing was by the end of the book Beah was adopted and given a second chance. He was allowed to pursue himself and to learn that the world is not all that he knows and there is more to it than just war.