A Long Way Gone #3

The book takes a serious turn here. Beah seemed to be escaping from the rebels his entire life. Everything changed. Beah was forced to fight against the rebels. He was finally given a place to stay and food every day. He became a child soldier. In this novel, the word child doesn’t seem to deceive me. I found out that Beah was capable of absolutely horrible acts. Just because he was a child does not mean that he did not perform adult duties. Beah described a war scene after one battle, “I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.” (Beah 119) He became inhumane. He talked of “The idea of death didn’t cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water” (Beah 122) He was worse than all of his companions and he became addicted to drugs. He did all sorts of drugs to ease the pains. He never did forget the pains that surrounded his childhood. He washed away his easiness to kill and his thoughts of his family by smoking marijuana and doing cocaine. It came to a point where Beah was getting out of control. This part ended with UNICEF forces taking Beah away. They told him they were taking him to a rehabilitation camp, but Beah had lost trust in all humans. He became violent at those who tried to search him and would not follow orders of anyone but his lieutenant.

Beah is an example of how a war can change a soldier. This isn’t even an organized war. They are doing drugs and changing the minds of what they think is good. Beah doesn’t even know what he is fighting for. This is dangerous. There needs to be some sort of cause. The thing about children being abducted seems to scare me because I do not see an incentive. What are the rebels trying to accomplish and why are they fighting. Also, what are the “good guys” going to do when they fight? There does not seem to be a possibility of defeating them because they recruit more people each time. There does not seem to be a way of this fighting to slow down. The country needs to do something more. There should not be children fighting dangerous rebels. They are being brainwashed and it doesn’t seem like the propaganda is helping to save lives or fight a cause.