Long Way Gone Reflection

There are definite qualifications a book must meet in order to be included in a school’s curriculum. The memoir, A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, is an exceptional example of what should be taught in schools across America. Beah’s story of struggle and strife is woven in such a way that the human experience is laid bare in his attempt to convey its twists and turns. His readers have the ability to reassess their own world through the universality of his written confession. Primarily, every human who exists forms a relationship of some kind with another human. Most people would agree family is one of the strongest bonds created between one another. Beah’s recollection of his family makes African concepts possible to grasp for foreign readers who know negligible information about the country or the culture to connect emotionally with Beah’s struggles. The loss of a family member is catastrophic, particularly in Beah’s case, as Junior is the only living member of his immediate family. When Beah flees

Presently, in many cultures, the dead are sacred. In times of war respect becomes tainted. Beah demonstrates this disrespect as a veteran soldier searching bodies without care for the dead: “I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them over” (119). Amongst this reality, Beah contests the beliefs that have been taught about the deceased throughout life and brushes against the unseen reality that all humans have the capacity to display the same behaviors. Beah’s reality agitates the morals commonly seen in a civilized society. There is no better content in a book to express universal themes than the words that cause a reevaluation of a set cultural