The Importance of the Family and the Community in A Long Way Gone

Yilin Chen

Family and community are two of the most important parts of life.Family is not only a background support for people but also the hope and purpose for people to be alive.The community and environment around the people can affect the actions and behaviors of the people a lot，especially children.Its hard to image a young child lost his family and joined a violent community for the rest of his teenage years due to the breakdown of communities into war in his native Sierra Leone.In the book A Long Way Gone： Memoirs of a Boy Soldier，the main character and author，Ishmael Beah，has a really unfortunate life; he lost his family to war at a young age and was forced to participate in the army，a type of community，because of the war.This community also becomes his family and it causes a huge problem for part of his lifetime.If there is no family，people will feel hopeless and unsafe，and if at the same time they live in or join a terrible community，that will leave a “scar” forever.

During the Sierra Leone civil war，rebels turned against the government and killed many people，including Ishmaels family and village，and he doesnt have a hope to keep alive.He doesnt know what the purpose is for the rest of his life.During the teenage years，many people question their own family and social value.For Ishmael，that questioning is going to be a harder challenge，because he lost his family and doesnt have the power to motivate himself to keep going.For instance，in the book，when Ishmael is first forced to fight he says，“I feel as if there is nothing left for me，to be alive for...I have no family，just me” （167）.It seems he is the only one who he cares about in the whole world.He has no more reason to act as a normal teenage boy who keeps a positive attitude and tries his best to do things every day.People put their family in a super important position in their life，because they need emotional support，or otherwise they will feel hopeless，and will not know what they supposed to do.

If there is no family，people will feel unsafe.Ishmael doesnt know what his emotional support is after losing his family，nor where he can focus to put his emotion.There is not a place anymore that can protect him; there is not a place any more that can give him warmth when he needs that; there is not a place any more that he can contribute to show his value.He chooses the army to be his family，since his own family was killed，and that is the only choice he can make，or he will lose the value of himself; even having the self-value of killer is better than no value at all.In the book，he mentioned： “My squad is my family.My gun is my provider and protector.My rule to kill or be killed” （126）.Ishmael started to treat the squad as his family，and he has a misunderstanding and an uncertain dream that his squad will protect，love，and support him.Unfortunately，that never comes true; instead of that，they change him into a violent boy，and teach him only to know about killing.In a word，the lack of love from family will make the person feel unsafe，and finally lead to bad consequences when they seek safety elsewhere.

A community that a person participates in will influence the behavior of that person.The connection to community is even more important among teenagers，because they dont have a mature standard of choosing the correct direction.As a result，the importance of the community shows the most on children，shaping them into adults who will later be the community.In the book，after Ishmael joins the community of the soldier，he says： “I took turns guarding posts around the village，smoking marijuana and sniffing brown，cocaine with gunpowder” （121）.He starts to use drugs just because everyone around him uses that kind of thing，and he doesnt understand the bad consequences about using the drug. He does drugs to feel more connected with his “family，” the squad.Community influences and creates people; it may create a good person just as easily as it creates a killer.

Family and community impact every person，and the main character，Ishmael，on the stage of life.They provide the hope and the sense of safety for people; the surroundings that people live around really change the values and actions of people.The precious memories and good values are destroyed by the war and killings，and without the inspiration of love and caring，Ishmael lost the original kindness inside himself.The guns and drugs burn his dreams and hopes，and he totally forgets who he is，and the will of himself，and the way that he “saves” himself in the world full of gunpowder is to emphasize his own value，which was lost for a long time，by valuing other people who in turn value him.