A Long Way Gone Analysis
Ryan Gamel
Period 2
10/19/11
A Long Way Gone From Innocent
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a story of a boy soldier and his journey throughout his country's civil war and his forced transition from childhood to adulthood. A long way gone is a perfect title for the book because throughout his struggles he travels farther and farther from his innocence. When a boy like Ishmael is exposed to the horrors and tragedy of war at such a young age it is only human nature to adjust to the environment around them. "I would always tell people that I believe that children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance" (pg 169). Ishmael learned how to survive amongst constant strife and brutality. He breaks his moral codes in order to survive and looses his innocence along the way.
In order for young naive boy like Ishmael to stay …show more content…
“he put his gun to the old man's forehead and continued... the old man closed his eyes and began to sob... the old man at this point was unable to speak... the rebel pulled the trigger, and like lightning I saw the spark of fire that came form the muzzle. I turned my face to the ground. My knees started trembling and my heartbeat grew faster and louder. When I looked back, the old man was circling around like a dog trying to catch a fly on its tail”(pg 33) As shocked as Ishmael was about the cruelty and tragedy that the rebels put the old man through. Surprisingly not much later he himself was doing similar things to people for no other reason than the rebels were on the other side of the civil war. Ishmael has learned how to survive in the violent civil war that he fell in the middle of. In order to survive in the war he lost something that he will never get back; he lost his innocence and his childhood. Ishmael had a violent grown man's personality trapped in a 15 year old's
Period 2
10/19/11
A Long Way Gone From Innocent
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a story of a boy soldier and his journey throughout his country's civil war and his forced transition from childhood to adulthood. A long way gone is a perfect title for the book because throughout his struggles he travels farther and farther from his innocence. When a boy like Ishmael is exposed to the horrors and tragedy of war at such a young age it is only human nature to adjust to the environment around them. "I would always tell people that I believe that children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance" (pg 169). Ishmael learned how to survive amongst constant strife and brutality. He breaks his moral codes in order to survive and looses his innocence along the way.
In order for young naive boy like Ishmael to stay …show more content…
“he put his gun to the old man's forehead and continued... the old man closed his eyes and began to sob... the old man at this point was unable to speak... the rebel pulled the trigger, and like lightning I saw the spark of fire that came form the muzzle. I turned my face to the ground. My knees started trembling and my heartbeat grew faster and louder. When I looked back, the old man was circling around like a dog trying to catch a fly on its tail”(pg 33) As shocked as Ishmael was about the cruelty and tragedy that the rebels put the old man through. Surprisingly not much later he himself was doing similar things to people for no other reason than the rebels were on the other side of the civil war. Ishmael has learned how to survive in the violent civil war that he fell in the middle of. In order to survive in the war he lost something that he will never get back; he lost his innocence and his childhood. Ishmael had a violent grown man's personality trapped in a 15 year old's