A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. we are able to see the different aspects of family life along With the relationships that oneself makes with those close to them. Beah shows how one persons life can be influenced and changed by the people they surround them selves With. Webster dictionary states that family means a group of indivrduals livmg under one roof and usually under one head. This is evrdent iri Beahs story as we see how the new bonds and relationships that Beah made throughout his life With his biological family.

boy soldiers in the Army. and Uncle Ts family changed his life so significantly. Through this story. we learn how many different experiences can alter the life of one human being so drastically and the way others around them influence ones life. Through his life. Beah was always special in a way, he loved his biological family more than anything in the world and even though his parents were divorced he still loved them while at the same time respecting their decisions to be separated.

This stage of Beahs life he was at his happiest with out a question. At such ayoung age he still managed to love his parents and care for them. and he showed this by visiting each of them frequently. What made it more impressive is that he would to travel from Village to Village just to do so. He never did this alone though; his brother Junior always accompanied him. The two of them were inseparable and Bean loved his brother dearly.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: A Long Way Gone

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Beah and Junior were able to spend a lot of quality time with their mother and father. The most influential person in all of Beahs life was his father Why may you ask your self? Beah had many struggles through his life and one of the many ways in which he kept on motivating himself was when he thought of the times he was able to spend with his father. When I was very little. my father used to say. “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.” This quote is a perfect example of a time when Beah reminisces on the old times he spent With his father. Beahs father always intended on motivating his sons and making sure that everyday they would strive to live a better life. with out the fear of failure. The happy life Beah was accustomed to. took a turn once the rebels decided to enter his village and separate him and many others from their families. On the run and looking for safety. Beah would now have to put together all the life skills his father and grandfather taught him in order to protect his friends from Mattru Jong. These boys were all brought together by one common goal. and that was to reach safety with the possibility of finding their families. One of the unsettling things about my journey. mentally. physically, and emotionally. was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end. I didn’t know what I was going to do With my life.

I felt that l was starting over and over again. Here we see just how much the running and searching that these young men have done has affected them and its just another example of Beahs willingness not to fail. After awhile of running Beah runs into another group of friends from Mattru Jong and at this point. Beah and his friends decide to go the village Where the Sierra Leone armed forces were located. This short stint With the friends from Mattru Jong made Beah realize how different life is once you are on your own. Beah knows that he is prepared for the next challenge that awaits him. what he doesnt know is that his character would change extensively. The early live of Beah was nothing compared to what he was about to encounter, He was now a completely different person. but still cared deeply for his family. which was now the army. His new job would now consist of killing rebels and protecting his family which was now the army.

Wheneverl looked at rebels during raids. I got angrier. because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders. I shot as many as I could. but I didn’t feel any better.(Pg. 122) Beah channeled his anger through the joy of killing rebels. but he realized that he could never expect to regain what he had lost With his family in any way. The killing he was doing would never make him feel as happy as he did when he was With his biological family. The army influenced Beahs life in away that made him understand the fact that he could never be as happy as he once was and he would only be putting himself a better position to fail, Beah was Willing to change his life and the lives of many more.

During the time that he lived in the Benin home and his Uncle T, he was able to View the world from a different perspective, one that would better the lives of those With a similar story. During this time he was able to recall on the time he would spend With many of the families he had spent time With. No other memories were more significant to him then those he had with his biological family. When i was a child, my grandmother told me that the sky speaks to those who look and listen to it. She said, ”In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, toy, and confusion.” That night I wanted the sky to talk to me.

Memories like this one were the ones that brought Beah back to his happy life, one that he truly enjoys. By the end of his story Beah was able to succeed due to the influential times he spent with his biological family and the experiences he had with the other families he once lived Wllhi Ishmael Beahs story truly exemplified how people whom you surround yourself with and the experiences that you go through change ones life. No matter what happens through out life, one will always reminisce about the child hood they once lived and the people who influenced them the most. Those moments and those people are the ones who pushed Beah to succeed and that is why he was able to find himself again and realize that instead of being a ruthless killer, he would now look to better the lives of those back home.