‘A Long Way Gone’ is an accurate retelling of an adventure of Ishmael Beah, who had turned into a compelled boy serving in the military during a civil war in Sierra Leone. Throughout the book, several themes could be observed, the idea of the father. The theme of the father shows that a father cannot always protect his son, even though he might want to. The theme of the father is firmly connected to the central theme of war in the book: the young boy, the main character of this true story, treasures his family more than anything in the world. For this reason, he throws his every effort towards preventing his family from getting hurt any way he can.
His father once said: “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” (Beah 54). Ishmael remembers this quote for the rest of his life, and it appears to be enough for him to struggle with himself towards yet another day.
The boy was only a little over twelve years old when his native village was ambushed while he was far from home with a gang of friends. When Ismael and his friends were staying at the house of Khalil, the member of the group, he had told them that the opposition had ambushed their native village Mogbwemo. Moreover, Khalil had reported that the representatives of the radical opposition were moving from village to village and forcing the civilians to leave their homes.
The civilians of the affected communities were moving away from the war zone to the small native town of Ishmael; however, nine of the new arrivals had any knowledge of the family of the main hero of the story. The new arrivals from the villages that are situated nearby had told Ishmael that the ambush of the opposition was very unexpected and hasty; as a result, there was utter confusion and every civilian had to move fast in separate directions to rescue themselves. That was the moment when the main hero of the book along with his friends had decided against returning to their native small towns and making an effort to find their loved ones.
The boys had started to retrace their strides; furthermore, they had come across numerous vestiges of the ambush, for example, large groups of civilians that were running away; men and women that tried to remain unseen behind the trees and to find their lost children; various vehicles that were stacked with the bodies of those who could not get out of the attacked area, and other horrors. With time, the boys began to understand that their path back to their native village was blocked, and their destination was unreachable.
As a consequence, Ishmael and his friends were forced to go back and devote their spare time to expecting any message from their parents of other loved ones. “He waited a few minutes, but the three of us didn’t say anything. He continued. Every time people come to us intending to kill us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die, and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am” (Beah 71)
With each page, the reader is increasingly sinking into the abyss of bewilderment, intensity, ambiguity, and unpredictability of the war. After the war has fallen on the homeland of the boy, Ishmael along with his brother and friends amble around suburbs, seeking to find something to eat and a roof to sleep under. The reality of these young boys is day-to-day combat towards extant; moreover, the young men discover the dark side of their nature, as they are perpetrating infractions they would never do in the time of peace, such as taking food from kids. With time, Ishmael was forced to become a soldier; as a result, he evolved into the single thing he was dreaded of – a murder machine.
Soon the boy began considering the army as his family; he gained an addiction to various drugs and believed that his family could be vindicated by the countless deaths of the soldiers of opposition. The killing spree continues until the boy is delivered to UNICEF, where he attended a rehabilitation center. Ishmael was constantly dealing with the horrors of his past and the uncertainty of his future, when he found the new hope and light in his life – a nurse Esther.
Furthermore, his extended family in Freetown greeted him warmly and gave him the love he needed. Later Ishmael was invited to New York to tell his story at the UN conference, where he finds his eventual step-mom, Laura Simms. After the boy had come back to Sierra Leone, the military force deposed the existed authorities, and the war became real to the boy again. Shortly after the death of his last family member, the boy abandoned Sierra Leone forever and came a long way to the United States to find a new home.
The book is chronologically divided into two main parts. The first one is the life of Ishmael before he decided to join the army; it is also the part that described his journey in endless efforts to find his family. The second part depicts entering the warpath by the author and his long rehabilitation, which has resulted in a positive outcome for a damaged boy.
The memory of his loving family, as well as the desperate support of his father and his will to help his son even despite the circumstances that do not allow him to do so allowed Ishmael to rehabilitate from the horrors of the war. Rehabilitation for many people appears to be long and difficult. Even though the rehabilitation was protracted and challenging, it became possible by the virtue of the undying love for the closest people in the entire world.
The rehabilitation began at the moment where the boy had realized that revenge will not bring peace to his soul: “I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” (Beah 112).
Works Cited
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, New York, New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2008. Print.