Beah's Journey

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In Ishmael Beah’s autobiography, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, he tells the story of his journey as a young boy in Sierra Leone. During his adolescence in Sierra Leone, Beah experienced truly horrific moments. These moments were an immense test of strength and dedication to being alive. Without these struggles, Beah would not be who he is today; however, most of these events were scarring moments that took a toll on him throughout his journey. One of the worst tragedies that unfolded during his journey happened the night that the village of Kamator was attacked by rebels. During the attack Beah was separated from his brother and friends. Reading the line, “It was the last time I saw Junior, my older brother” (Beah 43), really …show more content…
Gasemu, a banana farmer, asked the boys for some help carrying bananas back to the village. In contrast to the boys exclaiming their eagerness, they allowed themselves to be slowed down by helping Gasemu. The boys knew Gasemu from their home, Mattru Jong, and this most likely fueled their hope of locating their families in the village. Upon nearly entering the village, gunshots rang off in the distance and the boys and Gasemu took cover. They proceeded to run deep in to the woods to avoid the rebels. Later in the evening, the boys and Gasemu returned to find that everyone in the village had been killed or seemingly taken. This understandably angered Beah, since he could have been reunited with his family if he had denied helping Gasemu. Beah then turns all his anger onto Gasemu, attacking him and causing a huge commotion amongst the group. Voices of approaching rebels cause the boys and Gasemu to cease fighting and hide. They overhear the fact that villagers may have escaped, which only brings more uncertainty to Beah. Gunshots ring out and the boys and Gasemu make a run for it with bullets being fired in their direction. The boys all escaped unscathed; unfortunately, Gasemu had taken multiple shots. The last sentence of chapter 11, “For a few minutes I tried to imagine what it felt like for Gasemu when his fingers vibrated to let the last air out of his body” (Beah 99),
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