Summary Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

ISP Journal: A Long Way Gone

The book I read was “A Long Way Gone” by Ismael Beah. For my first journal I read from chapter 1-10.

The thing that shocks me is that the rebels are very brutal. They permanently carve their initials into anyone who they decide to recruit. The rebels send messengers to villages they have yet to attack and show them what will happen to them if they decide to run away. “ They had carved their initials, RUF(Revolutionary United Front), on his body with a hot bayonet and chopped off all his fingers…’’(Beah 21). The war tore the country apart and made people fear anyone they saw. When reading this I was disgusted, and it made me want to give up hope on humanity. I did not understand how someone can live but must face the torture of having their limbs chopped off and having initials permanently engraved into them, that everyone fears if they see. The rebels show no mercy and it made me feel terrified for what is to come next for all the other villages.

Despite, Ishmael Beah no longer having to run away from …show more content…
I feel sorry for him and what he is going through. He tells himself, “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 I was starting over and over again”(Beah 69). Ishmael has lost his way of life after losing his friends and family. Everywhere he goes, people fear him and believe he is a rebel. He feels that he has no place to call “home” and fears that the war is never going to end. Each new village Ishmael visits brings hopelessness and violence. Everyday he must start “over and over again” finding a new village and hoping he can call it home. His new life only consists of running away from the rebels and trying to stay alive. I wonder how long he can keep doing this and if one day he will be captured and forced to

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