The Gruesome Storytelling In 'A Long Way Gone'

While he and his friends are away for a talent show, their village is raided by rebels. The gruesome storytelling in A Long Way Gone is striking for many reasons on several levels. At one point Ishmael writes, “We are not like the rebels, those riffraff who kill people for no reason.” The narrative takes an unexpected turn by closing with Beah recalling a philosophical moment from his early childhood. In the final pages of the novel, Beah explains a story told to him and other children in his village once a year: you are a hunter prepared to kill a monkey with a rifle; before you shoot, the monkey tells you that if you kill him, your mother will die and if you don’t, your father will. None of the children ever reveal their own answer to what