Ishmael Beah's Recovery

786 Words2 Pages

This psychological memoir is written from the eyes of Ishmael Beah and it describes his life through the war and through his recovery. War is one of the most horrific things that could ever happen to anyone. Unwilling young boy soldiers to innocent mothers and children are all affected. In most instances the media or government does not show the horrific parts of war, instead they focus on the good things that happen to make the people happy and not cause political issues. In his book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah dispels the romanticism around war through the loss of childhood innocence, the long road of emotional recovery and the mental and physical affects of war. It is hard to remain innocent during a time of war. Ishmael was an He was chased and shot at by the RUF. As a young boy he had to endure seeing people gunned down in front of him and murdered in the most gruesome ways as illustrated by the author when he said, “I had seen heads cut off by machetes, smashed by cement bricks, and rivers filled with so much blood that the water ceased flowing.” (Beah 49) After many months of cheating death and experiencing the loss of friends and family Beah was mentally and physically drained of everything he had. War can cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, social withdrawal, nightmares, flashbacks, and symptoms of depression. As a grown man war can be physiologically devastating, but as a young child who knows nothing of the ways of the world this could easily cause them to want to commit suicide and struggle with what is right and wrong. Ishmael was a normal 12 year old boy in a small village in Sierra Leone when his life took a dramatic turn and he was forced into a war. War has very serious side effects for all involved and definitely affected the way Ishmael views the world today. He endured and saw stuff that most people will never see in a lifetime let alone as a young child. Ishmael was shaped between the forced use of drugs, the long road to recovery and the loss of innocence of his

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