A
Long Way Gone
Author:
Ishmael Beah
As Ishmael
and his friends get further along in their journey, they are really starting to
realize what they are doing. They’re doing things like stealing food from
people also stealing water from people. This is all scaring them very much. But
how could it not? They’re 12 year old boys…
Another
theme that pops up in this story is guilt. Ishmael along with all the other boy
soldiers is starting to feel really guilty for what they’re doing. Between
stealing stuff from people and even having to kill people, the boys are doing
stuff they could never even imagined doing. “Finally we were approaching the
village where seeing our families was actually a possibility” (Beah 91). It is
obvious that their motive was to survive and then eventually meet up with their
families once again. Although they knew why they were doing these things, I still
understand why they feel so bad for doing these things and that is because they
are only 12 years old and have never had to do things like this. If I were to
be put in the same situation as them, I would without a doubt be doing the same
thing.
You
can definitely connect what these boys are doing with survival of the fittest.
They are doing everything they can to survive away from what they are used to.
Up to this point they have proved that they are the “fittest” considering they
are still alive and moving along on their journey.
