Final Reading Respone

 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.