Chapter 1īeah begins by describing how unreal the rumors of war seemed to him, since his view of it was shaped from stories in books and movies. When they ask him if he’s seen combat, Beah smiles and doesn’t tell them any more about his childhood experiences there. They don’t understand the gravity of what he had been through in Sierra Leone. Prologue: New York City, 1998īeah, who is 18 years old, introduces his memoir with a brief conversation with friends. She eventually adopts him and moves him to the US where he completes high school as well as college. He becomes a refugee in Guinea and contacts Laura Simms. He doesn’t think he can survive another experience of war and leaves his family behind. When he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone is invaded by the army and the Revolutionary United Front. Beah eventually addressed the General Assembly of UN delegates who took action against RUF rebels in Sierra Leone. He was persistent, obtained the position, flew to New York City, marveled at it by night and spoke with Laura Simms during the day. He struggles to assimilate among people who are happy all the time, but he cannot speak about his experiences because of fear of alienating them.īeah learned about a trip to the United Nations and wanted to apply. Only after Esther, a nurse who is part of UNICEF, treats him as an equal person and not like someone who is different or dangerous can Beah overcome the trauma that war has caused him.īeah is sent to live with his Uncle Tommy and his family in Freetown. However, at first Beah can’t understand why these people act so differently than his own people do he doesn’t know how to interact with them. They have taken some boys from the military and put them into a camp where they are treated better. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) has been helping children in Sierra Leone. Because of this, he loses his sense of humanity and becomes desensitized to his situation. He and his unit commit the same atrocities that the RUF had perpetrated upon Beah’s own village. The boys are given drugs and fed an American action movie diet as part of their conditioning so they can kill people efficiently.įor nearly three years, Beah becomes a bloodthirsty killer. He is taken to a government camp where he gets treated well at first, but it becomes clear that the government needs more soldiers and must recruit young boys into its army. The author’s family is never going to be the same again. He reunites with his friends but discovers that the village they thought their family had escaped to was destroyed by rebels. Beah is alone and has to deal with the dangers of being in a jungle, such as snakes, wild boars, food supply and isolation. At this point in the book, Beah has become more mature because of all that he has been through during the war.īeah and his friends are separated from one another. He spends time trying to find a way home, but when he learns that his mother is dead and his father has disappeared, he decides to search for information on their well-being. In the beginning of “A Long Way Gone”, Ishmael Beah finds out about the rebels’ attacks from rumors and hearsay. From then on, chaos envelops him as he tries to find out what happened to his family and survive himself. On the eve of an attack on his home village, he and his friends leave to practice for a talent show in another town. 1-Page Summary of A Long Way Gone OverviewĪ Long Way Gone begins in Ishmael Beah’s early youth.
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