A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah Analysis

The Experiment of Ishmael and Mister
As you go through life you realize that there is always someone doing worse than you are. Sometimes you get so caught up in your own life you forget that there are people out there wishing they only had your problems. Your personal issues could be easier or difficult on the next person. When reading the memoir “A long way gone” by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael reaches rock bottom in his life and each day there are new experiences that normal people wouldn't face in a lifetime. When watching the film “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete” Mister and Pete showed people in their community that anybody could figure out how to survive if they had to. “A long way gone” and “The inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete”

both shared similarities and differences regarding poverty, family, and a written memoir vs. a fictional narrative.
The main characters, Ishmael and Mister both started out in their journeys poor but not as poor as the soon found out they would be. Both Boys were stripped from their childhood at young ages. Ishmael lost his family during the war and was forced to survive on his own. “I thought about were my family was, whether i would be able to see them again, and wished that they were safe and not to heart broken about Junior and me. Tears formed in my eyes but i was too hungry to cry” (121). Ishmael no longer had a parent to keep him and his brother safe. Just like Ishmael, Mister was soon on his own because his mother was taken to jail which left him and Pete to kids having to fend for themselves. The difference in the main characters situations was the setting. Ishmael was in a war while Mister was in derelict apartments in the hood. They realized what family truly meant once it was taken away.
The families of these young men were at a lost. They had no way they could help. Their parents weren't that involved with the boys from the beginning. Ishmael had great hope of finding his family until you witnessed their death. “I hesitantly tried to make out the faces of burnt bodies but it was impossible to tell who they had been” (95). Ishmael lost all hope when he knew he would never see his family again. Mister got worried when his mom didn’t come back home for a couple of weeks. The police informed him that she had been released previous to his phone call to them. Mister had no clue where his mother was and assumed she was dead. Mister lost hope in her. The boy’s situations differ because Ishmael lost his whole family whereas Mister lost his mom, the only family he knew.
The differences between the memoir and the film would have to the way they were detailed. When reading the memoir there was a lot of imagery. The imagery allows you to feel like you are going through life with Ishmael or if you are Ishmael. It also creates an image in your head, like playing your own movie. Watching the film makes you feel bad for the character not so much yourself. They were also alike in ways as well. They both seemed very real like they could happen to anyone at any moment. The theme of them were pretty similar, which doesn't happen often, most memoirs and fiction films.
At the beginning both of the characters weren't just ecstatic about life because they weren't worried about times getting worse. They became men in the matter of hours and not by choice. The memoir and the films show to different situations affecting the same areas of life in Ishmael and Mister’s life. Thought their journeys the learned that poverty was not only a feeling of loneliness but a boost to survive. Family was taken for granted until the main characters lost them and needed them for protection. A memoir and a film and had two totally different incomes and outcomes but shared the same theme.