The book “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, is
about a 13 year old boy named Ishmael and his journey traveling the country
running away from the civil war that his country Sierra Leone is going through.
During his journey Ishmael goes through a lot of challenges in order to survive
the war and throughout the book his behavior changes.
In the beginning of the book
Ishmael is a nice boy that enjoys rap and listens to rap music with his
friends. So one day on his way to his mom’s the rebels attack his village and in
order to survive he runs away from the village with his friends and gets
separated from his family. So while traveling the country looking for a safe
place to stay he runs into the army. Realizing that his only way to survive is
by joining the army, he joins the army with his friends.
In this part of the book where
Ishmael is training to be a soldier it shows how Ishmael is scared and weak, “After the late breakfast, we lined up
facing the corporal, who handed us AK-47s. When it was my turn, he looked at me
intensely… and my legs began to shake, when he started to smile. I hesitated
for a bit, but he pushed the gun against my chest. With trembling hands I took
the gun, saluted him, and ran to the back of the line, still holding the gun
but afraid to look at it”(88 Beah) This proves that Ishmael is scared and worried because he said that he held the gun with
trembling hands, and he said that he was afraid to even look at the gun. Compare
Ishmael in this part of the book to him later in the book like here, “We went
out two more times that week and I had no problem shooting my gun... In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in
the village square, I took turns at the guarding posts around the village,
smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown , cocaine mixed with
gunpowder”(95 Beah) This Part proves that throughout the book Ishmael’s behavior changes because he says that he has no problems shooting his
gun and before that part of the book Ishmael didn’t even want to look at his
gun. So Ishmael went from being scared and weak to being more brave and strong.
In this part of the book it shows Ishmael
acting more like a kid, play sports, swimming and doing things average kids do,
“When we were done with soccer, we
decided to go to the river for a swim. It was a sunny day, and as we ran down
to the river, I felt the cool breeze drying the sweat on my body. We played
swimming games for a few minutes” (90 Beah).
But later in the book Ishmael’s character traits change from being a childish
little kid to being more of a mature person and killing machine capable
of horrible acts. This is show in
this part of the book, “In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the
village square, I took turns at the 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 taking more of the white
capsules, as I had become addicted to them” (95 Beah). This proves that he went from being a childish
kid to being more mature and starts doing very bad stuff because he the book
states that instead of playing soccer, he goes taking guarding post around the
village and smokes marijuana.
So far in the book it looks like Ishmael is getting worse and worse and later
in the book UNICEF rescues Ishmael and take him away from the soldiers
in the front lines of war, Ishmael is rehabilitated and returns to his normal
self. This means that his character traits change again from being a violent person
to being a claim normal boy. This is show in this part of the book,” I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier
anymore; I am a child. We are all brothers and sisters. What I have learned
from my experiences is that revenge is not good”(152 Beah). This proves that
his behavior changed because earlier in the book he was killing people and
taking drugs but he says it himself that he is a child and that no one should
be afraid of him anymore. He even learns that revenge is not a good thing.
Ishmael’s
behavior changes through that story he goes from an insistent little kid to a
soldier taking drugs and doing violent things, then he goes back to being a
normal kid again. This proves that no matter what a person goes through he or
she has a good side in them waiting for them to find it.
