During times of difficulty, trust becomes lost. And when it's lost: people start to scapegoat, rumors are spread, people start living in fear, and etc. Upon arriving at an unknown village, Ishmael and his friends were solely greeted by an elderly man, "Everyone ran when they heard of the seven boys" (Ishmael 56). The man was handicapped, therefore he was a burden to the village; they had left him behind. Through him, the boys got the message. They would've once been seen as innocent and welcomed with wide arms, but with things becoming so chaotic people accused them of being devils. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is about Beah's first hand experience with genocide in his home country of Sierra Leon. His inner struggle to overcome the hatred in his heart, and the battle between the person he saw himself as and the person he wanted to become. Reading his cathartic memoirs, will inspire readers to defeat their own inner demons. Winning the war within yourself, will ultimately lead to the greatest success.
To me, success is achieving your goals and overcoming all the hurdles and obstacles thrown in your way. One of the articles we read in class, “The Felon and the Rhodes Scholar”, helped me to better understand that where you came from and where you ended up have more or less effect in your path to success. Wes Moore, is the name given to two different but alike men. Both grew up around the same time, around the same place, and around the same people but only one would come out on top. The Rhodes Scholar had a family to guide him to the right path, a family that influenced him to make the right choices. I believe the Felon did not have such a support system, which ultimately led to him having no hope nor any great ambitions. The Rhodes Scholar dodged bullets with support, while the felon had bigger bullets to dodge but no supporters, thus he ended up where he is now, jail. What success is and what it is to achieve success are two different things. To achieve a success, you first have to have goals and ambitions. One of my goals in life is to travel the world. Another step into achieving success is to know how to conquer the goal. Learning about as many cultures as I can and earning sufficient amounts of money, will help me to travel the world with ease. The last step to achieving success is overcoming any obstacles. And I can say that my parents are an obstacle. They're pretty myopic, I just hope as time goes by they open they're eyes to the idea and learn appreciate my curiosity about different cultures. Ishmael's book, definitely taught me to appreciate the world.
This book was clearly written to touch the hearts of people. The story of Ishmael will send your emotions on a roller coaster ride. There will be highs and lows. What sucks is, that when there are lows they aren't just a “That's so sad” thing, its more like a “Let me go over there and beat them up” kind of thing. It makes you want to react in some way, to stand up. The beginning of the book starts off in the present, as if Ishmael is recalling all the memories in the past. The ending of the story goes back to Ishmael's life now in New York.
While reading this book I learned about attitude shifts during times of war, I learned how being belligerent leads to fear and hatred in hearts. Even if the hatred in their hearts grows, there were still some pretty benevolent people, these people are completely selfless. And I believe they care more for the success of others than that of their own. There should be more people like that in the world. This book is also a great way to get to know some of the African customs and traditions. Although the African culture is some what distorted in the book because of the war, it still provides readers with an understanding.
Readers should check this book out, because its really good. I mean its really really good. These aren't some stories that have been made up, these are memoirs of a man whose been through hell and back. How he managed it through such an unimaginable time, still out stands me. I can't say anything in my life was quite as significant as what he's had happen to him. And I would most definitely recommend this to my friends. When referring to the constant barking and crying of once benign dogs they pass at each village Ishmael says, “They sound very human” (Ishmael 84). The sorrow of what was happening was not only felt in the humans, but even the animals. Their cries could relate to what the humans felt in their hearts. Cries for food, cries for lost ones, or cries for home.
