A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is about his journey through a civil war in Sierra Leone. Throughout his journey he faces many challenges. He loses his family and has to survive with just his friends as they try to find their families. His journey changes who he is as a person as the story progresses and he ends up doing anything he can to survive including fighting for the army being just a child.
In the beginning of the book Ishmael is happy. He is on his way to to his mother. But when the rebels attack everything goes down hill. He runs though the forest with his friends so that they won't get captured and recruited into the rebels. When he gets back to Mattru Jong to scavenge anything for survival, he and his friends get captured by the rebels. Just as they are about to be lined up and killed, a outburst of gunfire rings. As the Army and Rebels fight Ishmael and his friends flee the scene and into the forest to the net village.
Later on in the book he gets to Yele a village protected by soldiers. He and his friends are welcomed to stay but get assigned the job of gathering food and materials for the village. Eventually the Army realizes that they are going to need more soldiers on their side if they want to end the war. They call a meeting in the town square and ask for all boys and men to join the Army while all the women get the responsibility of cooking and gathering. At first Ishmael is scared about joining the Army. He trembles holding a gun and his arms start to shake. But the commander of Army changes his mindset. He makes him think of the rebels as the reason he doesn't have a family anymore and that he should be wanting to get revenge on them and avenge his families deaths. That idea quickly takes over his mind in weeks and he turns into a great squad leader.
When Ishmael gets taken away from the war by UNICEF, he has a hard time changing back to a civilian. He cannot trust anybody and takes out all his anger on other people. For weeks all him and his friends do is hurt people around them. Being taken away from the Army leaves anger and ambition in him that he can't take out on anyone. He is mad that he was taken away and wants to finish the war. However, when he meets Esther the nurse, he slowly changes back to a regular kid. Esther was the one person he could trust again and was like a medicine that cured him of all his sins. As the story continues he lives with is uncle and goes to a meeting in New York. In the time he spent out of the war, he realizes that revenge is bad and that it just leads to more revenge.
Ishmael's mindset changes throughout his journey. He goes from being a kid to a soldier with only killing on his mind. All he wanted to do at that point was to avenge his families death. When he gets taken out of the war, he has a difficult time transacting back into a normal kid. But after meeting Esther, he learns that revenge is a horrible thing and wants nothing to do with it.
