A Long Way Gone

This book tells another story of a child with a childhood that I cannot even begin to imagine. It is hard to imagine anyone living this hard of a life, especially someone who was so young. It was so sad to read about how he never even got to say goodbye to his family because he was just going to another village for a few days. I was relieved when Ishmael found his brother, Junior, and they traveled for a while together. Then, when he lost Junior and the rest of his friends I could not imagine his situation getting worse. He was a little boy living alone in the woods for months, not seeing a single human being. He had to find his own food, water, and shelter, all while fighting nature. I was glad when Ishmael finally found another group of boys travel with. When they walked on the hot sand without shoes and burned the skin off of their feet, I could not believe the strength the boys had. It made me angry that when Ishmael and the others would reach a new town, that they were not accepted, and were often ran out of town. They were just innocent children who needed help, but since the rebels had children fighting for them, even children were feared and left to fend for themselves.

Ishmael and the other young boys had to see so much destruction and deaths at such a young age, I do not know how they could ever recover from that. Seeing the rebels destroy villages, kill innocent people, and burn whole villages would be something that could not be removed from memory easily. Watching friends and companions die right in front of him is just so sad, and especially since he was so young.

I had a little hope when Ishmael was recruited to fight against the rebels because I figured if they were fighting against the “bad guys” then they must be the “good guys”. It is terrible that even the people fighting against the rebels were so nasty and brutal. The fact that they had children as young as seven years old fighting and shooting guns is just sad and disturbing. Nobody should fight battles like that, especially innocent children. Also, forcing children into battle by giving them drugs is not okay. Ishmael was so young, and he was addicted to harsh drugs like cocaine. This is so sad because when he was not drugged, Ishmael could think about what he was doing, and he was not comfortable with it; he would have nightmares. Giving these children drugs to make them fight brutal battles is sick because that is stripping them of their innocence, and they do not have a choice in the mater.

I am glad that Ishmael eventually got out of Sierra Leone, and into the US, but it is so sad to think of what he had to endure to get here. I appreciate that he took the time to write about his life, because I would not know of the Sierra Leone war without it. I especially appreciate that I have heard of a personal account of the war, so I can begin to understand what the effect was on the average person.