Ishmael Beah
229 pages
The devestating realities of a country at war and the pain and turmoil of a young boy are clearly detailed throughout this entire book. I was taken aback by the gruesome details in which he described the horrors that happened to him, his friends, the people around him and the barbarity he faced. Yet I was completely shocked to read about his pivotal point in which he lost all of his humanity to participate in the same travesties that were forced upon and his family… needless to say, it shook me to the core.
A Long Way Gone are the memoirs of a boy solider, Ishmael Beah, and his journey as a child from his village in Sierra Leone to where he is today. It paints a devastating picture of wartime violence, the tragedies that he and some of his friends faced while trying to escape the war—only to find themselves eventually caught up in the war as soldiers committing the same travesties on others that they themselves faced. It’s a painful story to read, heartbreaking and overwhelmingly depressing, yet a story that needed to be told—especially for the millions in the US and around the world that only see war through a television screen. He recounts the pain and fear that he faced on a daily basis, agonizes over the loss of his family and friends, and yet at the same time describes the affect the war took on his humanity by telling how he could slit a man’s throat, shoot people in the head at close range and never feel a thing. It’s chilling to see what war robs from those that it affects the most.
Ishmael goes on to describes his journey through rehabilitation—his life inside a center where he is allowed to heal from his days as a soldier and eventually make his way to America where his life is radically changed.
The word pictures that Beah creates are chilling and difficult to put out of your mind, however, I think that is his point. These are the images that he has lived with for years, and a story that needed to be told.
My favorite line from the entire book came on page 199 as he recalls his speech to the UN Economic and Social Council as a boy at the age of 16. He says: “I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child…What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” It’s the myth of redemptive violence.
I hope to hear more of the stories of people whose lives have been tragically altered because of war—I hope that their stories are shouted from the rooftops and more people take heed of what they hear, and someday we won’t be so callous in how we approach war, or so callous in the wars and genocides that we see taking place on our television screens. It is only through the stories that we will be able to stop our actual disconnect with the world at large and begin to step in and step up to stop these things from happening around the world.
Related posts:
- Faith of My Fathers (a review)
- pacifism and God’s judgment
- Would Focus on the Family correct Jesus?
- the book of daniel (part 2).
- my theology.
Fair, but similarly, I read Anne Frank’s story and wonder why it took so long for people to intervene. Is Ishmael’s story truly a call against war, or a call against injustice?
Hopefully, the mistakes of this war have influenced the American populace to a degree where we will not be so callous when approaching war the next time (this goes for me above anyone). But, will that also tend to make us more apathetic when we witness suffering in the world, and cause us not to want to intervene?
I agree with Eric. If the only message that we learn from places like Darfur and Rwanda is that war is bad then we have not grasped the entire point. Not only is war atrocious and evil, but it is all the more worse when those who have the ability to intervene choose instead to turn a blind eye. The truth (as ugly as it may sound) is that violence is sometimes redemptive when it means killing those who are killing untold millions of innocents in the name of racial cleansing.
i honestly believe that ishmael’s story is one against war because of what happens in the midst of the war, how people get caught up in it and have their lives and humanity destroyed. he honestly doesn’t deal a whole lot with the idea of injustice, but rather hits upon the point of a lost humanity.
you bring up a great point, eric, about the apathetic nature of people and how quickly we can become de-sensitized to what we are seeing and hearing. i think that’s why the medium of story is so important. it is through actual stories told in the first person that have the potential to change hearts and minds. (although i would want to interject that we would have to tell these stories through other methods than television because of how we disengage and become mindless zombies at what we see on tv).
i disagree with you rags about kiling being somehow redemptive depending on the circumstances (situational ethics?)… i at least disagree on a philosophical level, but have a hard time disagreeing on a practical level. i’m not sure how you can stop violence with more violence considering violence just breeds more violence. it’s a repetitive circle that continues on and on and on… i think this is where Jesus’ words of “blessed are the peacemakers” are so important and imperative for today. i guess this is the great tension that we inhabit… making the philosophical practical (however, i’m not sure that this is the best because inevitably we’ll short-circuit the process in the name of simplicity and ease.)