Long Way Gone Identity

The environment in childhood is important for forming identity, especially children are more vulnerable to the surrounded environment. People who experienced the war on childhood often carry their grim memories even after they are rehabilitated and have difficulties on finding their identities. We tend to forget our identities when we face a certain memory is unbearable to us, “[s]ome even forgot their names, family backgrounds and native language, and many had to wait decades to feel free to reveal their roots.” (Siev) In the memoir, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael experiences the war age of twelve and travels to find a safer place from war. We encounter the changes in Ishmael identifies him as a boy, a soldier, and a civilian boy throughout where he stays.
Ishmael was a twelve years old when he first underwent the war. Ishmael was a boy who likes to dance with listening to the rap music with his friends and he was a boy who can distinguish between right and wrong behaviors ethically.
The people who experienced the war in their childhood show that they have difficulties in identifying their identities due to the vulnerable mental development and the environment where they stayed. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah shows the changes of Ishmael’s identities as a boy who likes to listen to the rap music and keeping his ethically right mind even he is placed in a life threatening with wishing to be with his family, a soldier who was a murderer hidden behind the pride of soldier and loyal to the army where keeps him safe by killing the rebels, and a civilian who is rehabilitated outside of the war with getting his identity back as a boy and what would have the identity of a soldier could result in his life. This memoir gives the reader to think about the importance of surrounding environment of the children and what the war could affect to the identities of the children who are placed in the