Final Response to A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone is an unbelievably powerful and horrific tale of the growing issue of young individuals serving in war. Ishmael Beah narrates us through the course of his journey from fleeing his home town to escape the rebels, with his brother Junior and his friends, struggling to survive and find food. They would flee from town to town unknowingly sometimes encountering these rebels coming very close to losing their lives. The young boys know that they must stick together, constantly be on the lookout for these rebels, and prepare themselves for negative news about their families and the course of this civil war. At one point they are separated with Ishmael on his own soon to encounter other young individuals familiar from school and his home town, after spending days terrified on his own in the forests of Sierra Leone. After weeks on end in search of their families, they are soon informed that their loved ones are most likely dead.
Sadness and anger built within Ishmael and the following town they arrive in they soon become victims of these rebels and become controlled by the army. The young boys are taught to fight, taught obedience, and most importantly how to kill. With revenge in all of their hearts to the individuals who killed their families, they are transformed from innocent children to bloodthirsty killers. They are sent on raids into the villages, killing everyone in sight, and getting their hands on every ounce of marijuana they can find.
Fortunately for the young soldiers the United Nations steps in to fight this tragic effect that this civil war has caused to the young boys of Sierra Leone. Th United Nations arrive to take the boys away and rehabilitate them back to civilian life. Although Ishmael and the others resist, they turn their lives back around only with a brave and determined staff of workers.
The overall purpose of this book was to do whatever necessary to eliminate the use of children in warfare. This transformation of these young children illustrated through the course of the book is overwhelming. Being influenced on their behavior from free spirited rap-loving young kids of Sierra Leone to addicts of killing, the book remains so powerful in it expression of this tragic happenings. After the rehabilitation process is completed Ishmael Beah is reunited with his long lost uncle, and slowly becomes the young boy he used to be.
I truly enjoyed Beah's recount of his story and found it extremely influencial and inspiring. For being such an inexperienced writer, he often surprised me in the powerful statements and recollection of horrific details that just added such power to this memoir. The only aspect that would have made the book a little stronger was the factor of suspense. I feel Ishmael lacked a little of the suspensful narrrative and the exciting effects. Overall I really enjoyed A Long Way Gone Memoirs of A Boy Soldier and I would without a doubt recommend anyone to read it.
Ishmael Beah has continued exposing his story traveling to NYC to speak of the children fighting in war and his new chapter of his life that he was about to begin.