A Long Way Gone

I do not think I researched enough to prepare me for A Long Way Gone. Throughout all of the books we have read this quarter I have been mostly shocked by one common theme; how young all of the kids were. For this book in particular, Ishmael was 12 years old and acting like a normal kid his age. At the time of attack, he was away from his village performing in a rap group with his friends. At this point, his life was normal and what you could imagine from pre-teen boys. Then the fact that he eventually becomes a young boy solider in what is described politely as a grotesque war. Ishmael then becomes everything he could never imagine he would become on his wildest fears.

Even before he becomes a solider, my heart ached for all him and his friends, and everything they had to face. It broke my heart a little more each time they went to a village and found it abandoned and all of the times Ishmael thought of his family and just wanting to know where they were and how they were doing. Specifically in chapter 10, him and his friends’ stories of the attacks on their villages were horrible to read.

Throughout this book, I was surprised at just how grotesque and gruesome everything really was. Even his dream in the very first chapter was preview enough into such an awful war with what he described as the mangled bodies and streams of blood. I then was shocked when in that same chapter, his mind wandered back to when he was a solider, and attacking a village for food and open firing on boys his own age, and sitting on the bodies to eat the food. I cannot imagine something so horrific for any person to do, let alone a teenage boy.

Amongst everything else, I was also shocked with the amount of drugs all of the young soldiers took. It made me sad that that was how they got their energy to fight, and even when they had nightmares, drugs were the answer. The extent of the drugs was one of the craziest parts to me. I could not believe that when they would run out of drugs and food, they would raid rebel cams and attack civilian villages. Throughout this book, I had to remind myself that this was all real life, and not just a fictional book that was written.

While I was happy when they entered the rehabilitation center, it was not any easier to read. They behaved like animals while they all went through such serious withdrawals. I found myself excited for Ishmael when he finally opened up to Esther, and when his uncle wanted to take him in as his own. I am happy that in the end he was able to go on with his life and speak to others about his story. Even with that though, the emotional scaring any of those boys will have for the rest of their lives is unimaginable.