When people fall into darkness; the journey back into the light is hard, brutal and unforgiving. People will behave differently towards you as if you will never change, or they’ll never be able to trust you again. Those that you thought were your friends were really the enemy and will stab you in the back while others may try to take you back to the darkness. Some people may feel as if the darkness was kinder to them then the light. But hope is not lost; your true friends will always be there for you. If they are truly your friend they will be there for you through thick and thin. They will influence you to keep on making the journey back to the light. In the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael was influenced by his friends who had also been soldiers, Esther and his uncle.
There were so many people that influenced Ishmael’s live, whether they was for good or for bad. However three people influenced and guided Ishmael back to the journey to goodness the most. With them they brought events that brought back a piece of his family, gaining new friends, finding old friends, finding a place to call home and once again finding his heart. These events and people started the slow but sure change in Ishmael that turned him from a cold blooded killer back to the happy, energetic boy he used to be.
The first people that nourished the change in Ishmael were his friends. His friends were his pillars of safety. With his friends at his side, Ishmael knew he was safe. They supported each other through the rehabilitation, even if it made them mad at first to be just “kids” again. Slowly but surely they started to act like true kids again together, “’She likes you,’ Alhaji teased me. I didn’t say a thing. ‘Well, do you like her?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know. She is older and she is our nurse,’ I said. ‘You mean you are afraid of women,’ Alhaji replied, nodding,” (Beah 152). Even a small tease like that can mean the world when it come to child soldiers; soldiers who never felt any feelings for anyone. This tease show emotion, a child like emotion.
The second person the influenced Ishmael’s journey back to the light was Esther. Esther was Ishmael nurse and later become his pillar of support. She brought back his hopes, dreams and heart when she reintroduced him to rap music, “She threw a package at me. I held it in my hand, wondering what it was and why she had gotten it for me. She was looking at me, waiting for me to open it. When I unwrapped it, I jumped up and hugged her, but immediately held back my happiness………Taking the package from me, putting the battery and cassette in the Walkman and handing it to me. I put the headphone on and there was Run-D.M.C.,” (Beah 154). When Ishmael joined the army, they burned his cassettes; the ever things that represented who he was. But Esther give him back his being and soon gained his trust. With his heart back Ishmael could feel again and therefore trust again. He was also to understand that what he did as a soldier was not his fault.
The third person that influenced Ishmael’s journey was his uncle. After so long of wanting a family; people to be there for him always Ishmael was finally able to have a piece of his family back. Ishmael’s uncle became his pillar of love and with him he brought a sense of home and belonging. He also brought an end to Ishmael’s journey into the light for now he had to place to live, “After you are done here, you can come and live with me. You are my son,” (Beah 172). A place to live meant that he would never be left to be a soldier again. He had a place where he need to be and that was the thing that final brought the end of his journey.
So many people can influence one live, but only a few can really change it. Those people become the pillars that you need to survive. For they are the ones that keep them in the light and away from the dark.
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