Inspiration

While reading A Long Way Gone, I was confronted with a lot of graphic descriptions of people suffering and all of the violence that transpired. These boys had to witness so many horrors, including families being pulled apart, people being shot, and so many others that are absolutely unimaginable. The strength of the characters inspires me, and they always keep fighting. I feel incredibly bad for the people, including the main characters, who are forced to fend for themselves and carry on without loved ones. If I was one of the boys, I do not think that I would be able to find strength to run from the rebels if I did not have family or other parts of life to keep living for. Also, the people who kept fleeing from the rebels and witnessing horrors, had to be mentally very tough. The everyday scene for people was witnessing death and suffering, seeing lost children cry out for their lost parents and vice versa. One who deals with that sort of situation has to be psychologically stable. I was very sad when I read the story, because it puts everything in my life into perspective. I am sad when I do not perform well on a test or if I am late to an event or miss a television program. The characters in A Long Way Gone have a shattered and violent war going on right before their very eyes and they still manage to hold it all together very well, considering the horrible circumstances.