86 pages • 2 hours read
Ishmael BeahA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Traumatic After-Effects of Violence
The serious abuse of Poppay, the supply manager at Benin Home, by the newly admitted residents provides a disturbing view into the baser nature of human behavior under duress. The boys suffer while trying to re-adjust to life outside the military. They still eat their food within 60 seconds as taught in training. Addicted to drugs, angry, and mistrustful, the former child soldiers spend their days fighting each other in endless bloody battles, sometimes resulting in deaths. At night, unable to adjust to sleeping indoors and undergoing drug withdrawal, they drag their mattresses to the courtyard and sit up on them without sleeping until morning. While they eat breakfast, the staff always replaces the mattresses on the boys’ beds to instill a sense of consistency and comfort.
When the mattresses are soaked with rain one day, the residents approach Poppay to demand replacements. He counters that they should wait for the existing mattresses to dry. Feeling disrespected by “a civilian,” the boys stab, beat and kick the older man, leaving him bleeding and unconscious on the floor. The author recalls feeling angry afterwards because he “needed more violence” (140). Upon his return to the center, Poppay forgives the boys, noting that their behavior is not their fault.
The violence and aggression that the boy soldiers were trained to direct toward the enemy has now been diverted toward individuals attempting to help them. Poppay remains Christ-like in his capacity for forgiveness, but the incident is representative of the quick demise of civilized behavior under sufficiently stressful circumstances. Even after Ishmael ceases participating in violent behavior and learns to forgive himself, the effects of having seen and participated in so much violence during the war continues to haunt him via nightmares and migraines.
The Uplifting Aspects of Nature and Spiritual Traditions
Despite the horrific elements of his wartime experiences, Ishmael appears to draw on an emotional resiliency fostered by recollections of his early childhood. For example, on the day when Kamator is raided by rebels and Ishmael’s group disperses, the author recalls a ceremony performed when his family moved to the village of Mogbwemo. His father arranges to have their new home blessed and invites all the neighbors to attend the event. During the blessing, his father stands and prays that his family will always be together. An elder adds his prayer that even when any member of the family crosses into the spirit world, they will remain bound to one another.
Similarly, he recalls his grandmother explaining an adage that exhorts people to “be like the moon” (16). She explains that this directive is a reminder that people should always behave well and treat others with kindness, noting that everyone is happy when the moon shines. People appreciate moonlight in their own unique fashion; it provides light for people to gather at night and the opportunity for happiness.
Ishmael recalls these stories with pleasure. He is happy to know that some vestige of his childhood remains within him. When he is rehabilitated, the spiritual aspect of his nature is reawakened and serves to help him heal. He has an innate resilience and appreciation of the unseen world that emerges when he returns to his former persona. The beauty of the natural world represents a form of religious tradition to Ishmael. While his physical environment becomes hostile and toxic during his time of military service, he makes contact with the sense of the divine in nature that he learned as a child when he is discharged.
The Capacity for Altruism in Human Nature
The narrative abounds with gory details of the worst possible human behavior. In stark juxtaposition, Ishmael introduces several selfless individuals who help him to survive without thought of their own wellbeing. In addition to the forgiving staff members at the Benin Home, the author describes a fisherman of the Sherbro tribe who finds the boys hiding in his fishing hut. They suffer severe burns on the soles of their feet because members of another tribe drove them out of the village after removing their shoes. Ishmael explains that “It looked as if someone had literally used a blade to cut the flesh under my feet from the heel to the toes” (61).
When the young fisherman finds the boys, he heats special grasses to provide healing steam for their wounds. He also feeds them and brings them water for several days until other villagers become aware of the boys’ presence and fear that they are rebels. While the boys are savvy enough to indicate that the owner of the hut was unaware of their presence when the village chief interrogates them to protect the fisherman, their anonymous host risked his own safety in helping them.
Finally, Gasemu, the lone survivor who resided in Ishmael’s village, proves to be a selfless savior to the boys when they escape the rebel forces who burn the houses in which their families reside. Ishmael, who is deliriously happy at being so close to reuniting with his parents and brothers, is furious and devastated when rebels decimate the village within his sight. He regrets not having died with his family. Gasemu withstands Ishmael’s anger, which is irrationally directed toward the villager. Although the older man is shot and badly wounded, he directs the boys toward an escape route into the forest. When it is clear that he is dying, Gasemu has the boys carry him to a fork in the woods to show them which direction to take, and he dies immediately afterwards. As he recalls these instances, the narrator appreciates the selflessness that motivated for these actions.
