Long Way Gone

In the novel A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, we are given a glimpse into the life of a child that is trying to make his way in life during a time of war. While Beah does lose his family, home and childhood, he also loses his sense of safety and belonging. During the war, people from different villages continue to flee from the rebels that are constantly conquering villages, slaughtering the villagers like cattle. As the villages are broken down and conquered, boys are taken from their families and are enlisted into the war by both the rebel forces and the army. These boys are then brainwashed and transformed into tools of destruction as they fight alongside the men that seek to kill the opposing force. For a period of time, Beah was able to travel from village …show more content…
This can also be seen when Beah swims in a river with a family, the family’s laughter and enjoyment of the water suddenly disappearing. The family views Beah as a potential danger even though he was just a lost child. Even after the boys had escaped the war for a temporary amount of time, the sudden peace is lost in the city of Freetown. When Beah and another group of boys meet together, they begin to fight until realizing that they, too, are from the army. The peace is short lived, however as a bigger fight breaks out when they encounter another group of boys from the rebel army. The two cliques begin to clash as guns and explosives are involved, a handful of the boys dying. The boys immediately see one another as a threat because of what they were taught by the war and see one another as enemies instead of being together peacefully. The constant struggle of being able to trust another person and survival are in a constant loop within this novel. Trust and Survival can not only exist together, but one must balance these two in order to continue