In the novel, ‘A long way gone,’ by Ishmael Beah, the main character Beah finds himself struggling with accepting his current reality multiple times. Throughout the novel, many of the characters are forced to take on a new reality, their lives all taking a whole different turn and are forced to leave their previous one behind. Beah shows this multiple times, even having flashbacks or even giving in sight on just how different things are for him in the current moment from what they were like back in his village Mogbwemo.
The novel begins with twelve year old Ishmael Beah who lives a simple life in the eastern part of Sierra Leone in 1993. He passions himself with music and dancing while a civil war breaks out in other parts of Sierra Leone, however the fighting hasn’t touched him nor does he really believe it ever will. Unfortunately, it is only when Beah and his brother Junior and two friends leave their village to participate in another friend’s talent show, does the rebel army attacks their home village, Pillaging the village. While on the road, the boys hear about the attack and in an attempt to locate their families, they go back despite the danger; a part of them not fully accepting their reality to hope for their loved ones. It is only when they encounter a woman whose baby has been shot on her back, does the horror really sink in and make them realize that they can’t go home, because there isn’t anything left. The war had become their new reality in the blink of an eye, Beah knows this, even commenting, ‘It was clear in the eyes of the baby that all had been lost’ (Beah 14).
For awhile after he realizes he can never go back to his home, he gets steady nightmares so graphic, he finds it hard to distinguish dream from reality, “That night, when I finally managed to drift off, I dreamt that I was shot in my side and people ran past me without helping, as they were all running for their lives. That person pointed the gun at the place where I had been shot and pulled the trigger. I woke up and hesitantly touched my side. I became afraid, since I could no longer tell the difference between dream and reality” (Beah 15). Despite Beah being sure this would now be their lives, running from the rebels in the area, his friends are quick to try and change his mind, saying it may only last a few months, then they would soon go home. However the RUF attacks, and having to be on the run for so long have turned Beah and the other children around him from the mentality of regular children to young adults whose priorities have shifted from a love of music and dancing, living a peaceful life to a need to survive the passing days, though Beah tries to keep his hopes up that things may get better, he knows things will never be the same.
127 our experts are availableright now
Furthermore, after Beah and his companions run into the rebels and are separated from one another, Beah, alone, pulls himself together and comes face to face with dangers from being in the wilderness and now being alone, deals with his own isolation and fear. He eventually reunites with a group of his previous classmates briefly only to discover that the village he believed the rest of his family may have taken refuge in has just been ransacked and destroyed by the RUF. While travelling through the forest once again, the group of boys are stopped at gunpoint by military soldiers. Beah and his friends are taken to a village near the coast that is currently being controlled by the military of Sierra Leone called Yele.
Initially, Beah and the others take enjoy and take comfort in the safety of the village, thinking it heaven from their previous reality. That is until they are told that they can stay, but if the rebels find Yele, the leaders expect the boys’ help to protect the group. At this point, Beah is given an AK-47 and ammunition, taught to shoot, and has to leave his childhood behind to fight in the government’s army. In a way, Beah accepts this, his childhood is already gone to him. “My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen. I knew that day and night came and went because of the presence of the moon and the sun, but I had no idea whether it was a Sunday or a Friday” (Beah 127). Beah believed that part of the innocence of childhood is being trusting and open-hearted– playing with friends and family, but he’s not like that anymore. He feels lost like he’s in a dream.
Towards the end of the book, as a part of the army, Beah becomes the very thing that he despised and feared, now addicted and stricken by drug and alcohol consumption, he kills the people he once deemed innocent without regard or regret, even comparing his weapons to the family and village that was taken from him despite the fact that he and his unit are committing the same atrocities that the RUF (rebels) had done to Beah’s own village and neighboring towns. Along the line, he earns the nickname “Green Snake,” due to his skill at finding good positions for their unit to ambush the army’s enemies. He basically lives his life to kill at this point and enjoys it, so when the UNICEF group arrives and basically makes a deal for the lives of the children soldiers in his group, the army goes give them up, and Beah resists.
He cannot understand why he’s abandoned by the army he’s fought for, “None of us knew why our commanders had let us go. We were excellent fighters and were ready to fight the war till the end. One boy was telling us that he thought the foreigners gave our commanders money in exchange for us. No one said anything to this. I still had the grenade in my hand as we conversed. Sometime during the conversation I turned to the man who had brought us to the kitchen. He was sitting at the edge of the table, shaking. His forehead perspired profusely. ‘Do you know why our commanders gave us up to you sissy civilians?’”(Beah 133). For awhile after, Beah finds it hard to go back to the life he had before everything, he just can’t. Again, he is forced to try and find some balance and change his reality as he is put through rehab and is housed with his uncle and foster mother. However, when war begins to travel north, to avoid being put through everything all over again now that he’s found happiness in his life once more, he uses all his money to flee the country, to create a new reality for himself.
