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The memoir “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier” by Ishmael Beah is the memoir of a young boy from Sierra Leone who at the age of twelve fled the village of Mattru Jong, where he and his brother were visiting to participate in a talent competition. Little did he know that this was the last time they he would be able to return home. Ishmael Beah’s memoir Long Way Gone tells the story of a young boy forced into a world of violence, death, misery, and despair. Ismael’s memoir gives the reader a look into the life of child soldiers in the ongoing conflicts occurring in Sierra Leone and other countries around the world. In the following paragraphs we will be using information gathered from Ishmael Beah's memoir and other sources to discover how being a child soldier might have affected his life after gaining his freedom from combat.
Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war began took place between 1991-2002, with an attempt by former Liberian president Charles Taylor to overthrow the rightful government of Sierra Leone led by Joseph Momoh. It was during this conflict that Ishmael Beah fled advancing rebel forces and was separated from his direct family at the age of twelve. Beah then wandered his way across a war ravaged-country. In one interview Beah says "I saw a man carrying his son that had been shot dead, but he was trying to run with him to the hospital," Beah recalls. While wandering the countryside Beah was forced to join an army unit, which brainwashed him into believing in guns, blood, and drugs. Armed with an AK-47 and killing too many people to count, he says they would smoke marijuana and sniff “brown-brown,” a combination of cocaine and gunpowder, with commanders and other child soldiers. The army watched war movies like “...

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...myself,” Beah said. “I live knowing that I have been given a second life, and I just try to have fun, and be happy and live it the best I can.”(Barnett, Errol)
Ishmael Beah has begun a new life with a new family with his adoptive mother Laura Simms far from the reaches of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Although the civil war in Sierra Leone has long ended Beah still struggles with the atrocities he was forced to commit as a child soldier. Beah now spends his time enjoying his new found freedoms by helping and informing other on the horrors of recruiting child soldiers in countries around the world. This might be interpreted as Beah’s attempt to expunge the terrible crimes he committed while under the influence of terrible men. It may appear that Beah’s life has returned to a semblance of normal but Beah may forever be haunted by what he endured only time will tell.