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Ashlee Austin

Miss Helbig

English Composition I

25 September 2023

War and Child Soldiers

When I think of good writing, I think of novels I read in high school. One book we read

really stood out to me, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. My teacher used this book to make

us see that no matter what has happened to you, you can make a better life out of it. He also

wanted us to read it because it allows the reader to see that family, even though they are not here,

can help you through tough times in life. I love this book so much. I felt a real connection to

Ishmael a few times throughout the story. It is a book about a boy who was growing up in Sierra

Leone when a civil war breaks out. He avoided them for a while but was recruited by

government soldiers. For the next two years, Ishmael and other boys were forced to be soldiers.

They were pumped full of drugs, taught how to use assault rifles, and were forced to kill other

people. Once the war had subsided, the boys were taken in by some aides who would help them

get reacclimated to normal life. It was a lengthy process, but eventually they were able to adapt

and start a new life. The book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is an example of good writing

because it is engaging, there was a purpose, and the reader is left with questions due to the book's

lasting effect of them.

One reason is that the novel is engaging, I never wanted to put the book down. The main

reason for this is because of how descriptive the book was. It makes the reader able to visualize

what Ishmael is seeing and experiencing. “Her child had been shot dead as she ran for her life...

When she stopped at where we stood, she sat on the ground and removed her child. It was a girl,
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and her eyes were still open, with an interrupted innocent smile on her face. The bullets could be

seen sticking out just a little bit in the baby’s body and she was swelling” (Beah 13). While this

quote is gruesome, it also shows how descriptive he was when writing this book. When reading

this, the reader can visualize exactly what Ishmael saw. Another reason this book was engaging

is the memories that Ishmael carries with him. Memories of his family and friends are what kept

him going when he was traveling across the country trying to escape the war. Throughout all the

traumatic experiences, he was able to use family to keep him going and it allowed him to heal.

This made me realize that I do this as well. I have memories of my great grandmother that have

helped me get through hard moments in my life. I felt a connection to Ishmael which made me

more inclined to keep reading.

Another reason is that the novel had a purpose. Ishmael’s main purpose in this book was

to inform the readers of how the children in Sierra Leone were affected during and after the war.

In the book, he states, “We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been

tainted by the same experiences that still caused us great pain and sadness” (Beah 202). Another

thing that affected the children was the drugs they were being told to take. In the book, he states,

“A young soldier came by with a plastic bag full of some kind of tablets. They looked like

capsules, but they were plain white. He handed them to each of us with a cup of water. ‘The

corporal said it will boost your energy,’ the solider announced with a secretive smile on his face”

(Beah 116). They did not want to disobey their leader, so they would take the pills which were

packed with cocaine. The effects of them taking these drugs were terrible due to the withdraw

symptoms. The whole point of him writing this book was to inform the world about how much

this civil war affected them in a negative way. These children who were affected by this, that are

still alive, are burdened by these memories every day, reliving them repeatedly.
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The last reason is that the novel evoked emotions in the reader. This book has some

serious topics in it, but there are also some lighthearted moments where the readers can almost

forget there is a war going on. One of those moments was right before the war when Ishamel, his

brother, and a few friends were walking to another city, sixteen miles away, to compete in a

talent show. They were going to perform a dance number to some American rap music they

listen to. They were so excited because many people from their country had never heard of this

kind of rap, they wanted to introduce them to it. The clothes they were wearing were baggy,

which ended up saving them a few times once the war broke out. When a book makes the reader

feel something, it makes the book have a lasting effect on them. This moment stuck with me

because I love music and it is a big part of my life. I love introducing people to new music and

seeing their reactions. When a book has a lasting effect on the reader, it can also leave them with

questions. After reading this book, I was left with many questions regarding the Sierra Leone

government and why they would let the soldiers recruit children to help them. One of those

questions was why would the government want to recruit children to become soldiers? I also

wanted to know why they did not just recruit women instead of children? My last question would

be how they feel now, after the war has ended, about all the traumatic experiences they had those

children endure?

This book changed the way I see foreign wars and soldiers. I never realized that in some

wars their soldiers are children. In Sierra Leone, they had a civil war in which the government

army was fighting against the rebel army. Both sides were recruiting children and turning them

into soldiers. They would then teach the kids how to shoot assault rifles and pump them full of

drugs. When I heard the book was about a child soldier, I thought it was going to be about a child

who wanted to fight in the war. In the book, the children were captured and forced to fight. I

never realized that governments would force children to be soldiers. It robbed them of their
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childhood, most are still living with the negative effects that were caused due to the war.

Between this and many other factors, it meets our class definition of good writing. The novel A

Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is engaging due to its descriptive features. This allowed the

reader to visualize what is going on in the book. The novel also has a purpose, which is to

educate and inform the reader on what the children went through during the civil war in Sierra

Leone. The book has a long-lasting effect on the reader, which can lead to them being left with

questions. The questions are evoked due to the emotions the novel made the readers feel. In the

end, the novel A Long Way Gone meets our class definition of good writing due to many

different components.
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Work Cited

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008.