“People think of healing from this type of thing as forgetting. I will never be able to forget any of what has happened to me. I have come to learn how to live with it. How to transform it… It makes me appreciate life. Just waking up in the morning is enough for me to smile and be happy, because I know what it is like not to have that freedom.”
~ Ishmael Beah, quoted from an interview on The Hour
A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, is an autobiographical memoir that takes the reader on a psychological journey through a war savaged country filled with violence, death, and children who wage war begun by adults. During Beah’s interview on The Hour, he spoke of how important it is not to forget what has happened and what continues to happen. As a teacher, I can help further Beah’s commitment to remember by teaching this book; I can help ensure that other people are not allowed to forget.
Not only is Beah a survivor, he is a very gifted writer. A Long Way Gone is written in such a way that the audience is able to witness first-hand how a child can transform into a soldier and still regain his humanity. Beah successfully portrays important concepts, which elude high school students: they are not invincible and change can happen instantaneously.
From the very beginning of this novel, I had a difficult time processing the images Beah shared. Sometimes I had to put it down for days so I could let the violent images settle, yet they never really did. I kept reminding myself that Beah was safe. He is in America; he is able to tell his story to the world. Slowly, I began to understand that Beah was telling his story because he could not forget, and the world should not be allowed to forget either.
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