The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister 'And A Long Way Gone'

The film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete and the memoir A long way gone have many similarities and some differences. The main character of the film is Mister, a boy whose mother is an addict and is taken to jail. While his mother is gone Mister must take care are a young boy and survive with no food, no money, or sufficient shelter. The main character of the memoir is Ishmael Beah, who is a boy that has to become a child soldier to survive during the war in Africa. These events take place in different countries and they have different circumstances but they have things in common. This essay will highlight the similarities and differences within poverty, family, and memoir vs. film. There are several types of poverty and both Ishmael and Mister were impoverished in all of these ways. They were both largely in absolute poverty which means they were deprived of required goods and services and they could not fulfill fundamental needs like food, shelter, etc. Mister and Pete had no money to eat to after Mister’s mother was taken to jail and eventually the electricity was turned off so there shelter was unsubstantial. In the memoir Ishmael and his friends could not always find food to eat and he gives an example of this when he said, “We could not find anything substantial to eat. We got hungrier day after day, to the point that …show more content…
Both Ishmael and Mister experience all of the types of poverty and they both have to work to overcome them. They both started off as innocent young boys and they had to grow up extremely fast and start taking care of themselves and others. The memoir and film differ because they had different circumstances and went on in different country and time periods. The film and memoir both show that with certain circumstances people have to do whatever to survive and people may have to do bad or evil things in order to