"A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah

*SPOILER ALERT*

*Reading this Summary may Hinder your* *Reading Experience, Should you Decided to* *Eventually Read this Novel*

     Investing the time to read "A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah, would be a bright idea for almost anyone.  From thrilling scenes of blood and gore, to intellectual moments of contemplation about rivaling societies, Ishmael Beah probably considered everything from his childhood when he wrote this adventure of a memoir.  He tells the vivid story of his early life with a fully honest, and therefore nightmarish, style.  Nothing went easy for him, and he sure didn't sugercoat any of it when he described everything in his story.  He admits to drug addiction, competitively slitting enemies throats, casualties with innocents, and so many other factors of his childhood that will forever more have an impact on his behavior.

Ishmael Beah speaks about the Sierra Leone Situation

     Aside from young Ishmael Beah, my favorite character was the Commander of Ishmael's squadron.  According to Mr. Beah's recollection of his army days, the commander gathered together a bunch of poor African boys, and transformed them all into ruthless killing machines.  Probably supported by his consent, the members of his unit always had access to marijuana, cocaine, and brown-brown (an illegal African concoction of drugs).  If one put his or her mind to it, one might come to the realization that this Commander really knew what he was doing.  He was able to efficiently train tiny boys, eventually making them truly able to fight in crossfires, and the drugs on the side were a big factor.  They eliminated much of the people's need for sleep and feeling for pain.  These helpful side-effects (given the situation at hand) were enough to make drugs a positive thing for almost every soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war, as Ishmael eventually discovers.  During the times of the war, drug addiction was not a worry.  In fact, the side-effects of said drugs were the primary reason for their uses many cases.  Several times during Ishmael's story, there is a mentioned moment where Mr. Beah, or one of his former comrades, recieves at least one bullet wound, but the drugs they had previously taken had helped them ignore it.  There is even a moment during the story where Ishmael's leg gets swiss cheesed around the outside by at least three bullets, which is told when he narrates, "I didn't even feel the excruciating pain going on in my leg, as a result of the after effect of the drugs I had been taking"(166).

   Once forced into a system of rehabilitation and schooling, after boatloads of resistance to authority, Ishmael Beah subtly shifts to a new perspective on the war and his drug addiction.  He gives up on trying to scavenge little bits of drugs here and there, and he establishes a new opinion of fighting for Sierra Leone: bloodshed is intolerable.  He simply can't stand the ongoing chaos so much that he eventually manages to escape Sierra Leone and find a refugee house.  It is inferrable that he soon got a flight to America, on account of the fact that he wrote this memoir and currently lives in the U.S..