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A Long Way Gone

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A Long Way Gone
Greg Dorchester
Along way gone
Imagine being a nice well respected kid into a cruel boy at such a young age. Interacting with people that you do not even know in your life that has an intention of just killing can be difficult for a young boy. Beah’s harsh actions were displayed in his memoir, Along Way Gone.
Ishmael Beah proved that he lost his innocence by letting the rebels turn him into a murder, by getting convinced that violence is the solution to everything, and by relying on drugs to ease the pain he was suffering.
Beah was manipulated by rebels into becoming a non­stop murder. The rebels really get under his skin and brainwashed him into fighting in wars. He ends up coming across another rebel group that he surrounds with the other kids and the other rebel kids looks familiar to him because he thinks they were the group who killed his family. Beah gets angry and angrier, “so when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn’t feel better” revenge takes over him and has an outburst (pg. 122). Beah had encountered, “… a few rebels after a long gunfight and a lot of civilian casualties. We undressed the prisoners and tied them until their chests were tight as drums” and tortured the rebels that the kids captured (pg.123). Beah is a murder and has no sympathy for any harm he does.
Beah inserted violence and killing into his life at such a young age. The rebel group manipulated Beah by convincing him, “my squad is my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed” and does not think otherwise (pg. 126). Beah was now made into soldier and enforced that this was all he had. No intention to think of something

else for the better never came to mind to him. Killing was, “… a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone” which ruined for his childhood (pg. 126). Ishmael Beah’s personality completely changed and his innocence was destroyed.
Drugs had become the main component of losing his

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