A long way gone text to society

Jenna and I chose to read a long way gone by Ishmael bach. This is a memoir about how a young man in sierra Leone, was forced to become a child solider at such a young age. He was forced to kill the innocent, and leave many loved ones behind. He never went back to see his family after he became a solider. This experience later influenced him to experiment with drugs. These drugs helped him stay awake, which was needed to become a solider in such harsh conditions. Imagine trying to live in the conditions that he did. Could you leave your whole family behind knowing that they were going to die. Leaving so that maybe YOU would live. Ishmael was careful to never become a rebel and to never attract the rebels. This book made me relate to todays teen drug abuse issues that we still have today. I have had hundreds of assemblies over teen drug abuse in the past years, and its all over. Its from school to at home that you see this conflict. This also helped me relate to James in the Color of water, because both Ishmael and James when times ended up getting rough, they experimented with drugs, almost ruining their lives.

There is a link that connects you to learn more about child solider. This link is actually like a summary of Ishmaels life. It talks about him specifically, and it is much like an interview. Its like a new voice outside of his book, and it helped me clarify some questions I had about certain experiences, and I would recommend it to anyone, who is reading or has read a long way gone. Also there was a statistical link, concerning teen drug abuse. This connected James's story with Ishmaels, and shows that they are not the only one. Both of them, when going through that rough time in life, did the same thing with drugs, just like teens do today. Both of these links gave me more incite about what's really happening in my book and gave me some reasons why, making both of them very helpful.