A Long Way Gone Ishamel Beah's Transformation

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In the book “A long way gone” written by Ishamel Beah, the main character transforms from being an innocent child into a hungry and thirsty survivalist that is capable of more than one could imagine. This highlights one of the biggest fears assumed with the war. No matter how innocent and gentle a person can be, once he is placed in the context of a war, his mind can completely switch to being a survivalist and that often leads to a transformation into a very brutal person that bases his life around basic survival needs. One of the examples of the transformation could be traced in the part when Ishamel end up being alone because he was split up from his friend and realises that isolation from people would make him safer however isolation also …show more content…

However once he gets to that village the rebels begin the attack and destroy the village along with killing everybody in there. After that the boys started to fight with each other because they could not stand it anymore which is a turning point in the story. One of worst aspects of the war is the fact that it takes everything humane out of you and out of the place that you live in which often can drive people mad. This being the case, Ishlaem slowly started to become a very different person to who he was before the war. Him and the other boys decide to join the army because they were simply left with the choice of kill or be killed. At this point Ishlaem becomes a person who he never wanted to become and was always scared of. In the army they were constantly reminded of the fact that killing rebels is the only important thing because they have previously killed their families, they kids were getting brainwashed by the army. When the time for the first fight comes the kids were given drugs in order not to feel tired or sleepy which made them fight stronger and

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