A Long Way Gone Home Analysis

Although the violence in Africa is often overlooked by most countries, it continues to be an immense problem for the African people. Their unstable economic status is no match to the untraditional brutality that average citizens and soldiers perform on enemies. The novels We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, by Philip Gourevitch, and A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, not only give insight into the war violence committed in Africa, but plunge the reader into a personal recall of the dangerous day to day life.
In the book, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, Philip writes about the tragic experiences of Tutsis from several first hand interviews he had with survivors. A …show more content…
The book opens with Ishmael, along with his friends and brothers, performing rap and dancing in the streets of their home village in the African country, Sierra Leone. As young teenagers, the group of boys left their hometown to perform in a talent show in Mattru Jong, the next village over. While they were away, their hometown was attacked by rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). After hearing about the inconceivable violence, the group immediately started on their pilgrimage back home, in hope to find their families alive and well. Unfortunately, they quickly realized that the journey was far too dangerous for such a slight chance of their families survival. Instead, the group sticks together and begin their journey to safety by moving from village to village to escape the everyday violence performed by the RUF. Months passed quickly as Ishmael traveled across the country when he heard of his family’s survival, and their location being only one mile away. Sadly, when Ishmael has only a short distance to go, the village housing their families is attacked leaving no survivors from the unrelenting rebel