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1-Page Summary of A Long Way Gone

Overview

A Long Way Gone begins in Ishmael Beah’s early youth. On the eve of an attack on his home village, he and his friends leave to practice for a talent show in another town. From then on, chaos envelops him as he tries to find out what happened to his family and survive himself.

In the beginning of “A Long Way Gone”, Ishmael Beah finds out about the rebels’ attacks from rumors and hearsay. He spends time trying to find a way home, but when he learns that his mother is dead and his father has disappeared, he decides to search for information on their well-being. At this point in the book, Beah has become more mature because of all that he has been through during the war.

Beah and his friends are separated from one another. Beah is alone and has to deal with the dangers of being in a jungle, such as snakes, wild boars, food supply and isolation. He reunites with his friends but discovers that the village they thought their family had escaped to was destroyed by rebels.

The author’s family is never going to be the same again. He is taken to a government camp where he gets treated well at first, but it becomes clear that the government needs more soldiers and must recruit young boys into its army. The boys are given drugs and fed an American action movie diet as part of their conditioning so they can kill people efficiently.

For nearly three years, Beah becomes a bloodthirsty killer. He and his unit commit the same atrocities that the RUF had perpetrated upon Beah’s own village. Because of this, he loses his sense of humanity and becomes desensitized to his situation.

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) has been helping children in Sierra Leone. They have taken some boys from the military and put them into a camp where they are treated better. However, at first Beah can’t understand why these people act so differently than his own people do; he doesn’t know how to interact with them. Only after Esther, a nurse who is part of UNICEF, treats him as an equal person and not like someone who is different or dangerous can Beah overcome the trauma that war has caused him.

Beah is sent to live with his Uncle Tommy and his family in Freetown. He struggles to assimilate among people who are happy all the time, but he cannot speak about his experiences because of fear of alienating them.

Beah learned about a trip to the United Nations and wanted to apply. He was persistent, obtained the position, flew to New York City, marveled at it by night and spoke with Laura Simms during the day. Beah eventually addressed the General Assembly of UN delegates who took action against RUF rebels in Sierra Leone.

When he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone is invaded by the army and the Revolutionary United Front. Many people die, including Beah’s uncle. He doesn’t think he can survive another experience of war and leaves his family behind. He becomes a refugee in Guinea and contacts Laura Simms. She eventually adopts him and moves him to the US where he completes high school as well as college.

Prologue: New York City, 1998

Beah, who is 18 years old, introduces his memoir with a brief conversation with friends. They don’t understand the gravity of what he had been through in Sierra Leone. When they ask him if he’s seen combat, Beah smiles and doesn’t tell them any more about his childhood experiences there.

Chapter 1

Beah begins by describing how unreal the rumors of war seemed to him, since his view of it was shaped from stories in books and movies. Two years later, in 1993, he sees war up close when friends come home early with news that school is cancelled because Mogbwemo has been attacked by rebels. He goes to a wharf where refugees are arriving and waits for his family but no one they know shows up after several hours. Beah decides to go back home to find them.