A Long Way Gone And The Old Chief Swesa Analysis - 1055 Words

After reading and analyzing both, â€Å"A Long Way Gone† and â€Å"The Old Chief Mshlanga†, they both show how a strong protagonist undergoes a loss of identity while beginning to mature in the real world. Throughout the text we are shown that both these individuals have a strong background in which the two are brought up in, and later have to find their own way in the world. In â€Å"A Long Way Gone†, a youthful boy named Ishmael Beah is caught in the upheaval of the Sierra Leone Civil War when his village is attacked and he is ripped away from his family. He is left to fend for himself and has to learn how to quickly adapt to his surroundings and do what is necessary to survive. In the novel, â€Å"The Old Chief Mshlanga†, a young English girl is brought up†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Whenever I get the chance to observe the moon now, I still see those same images I did when I was six, and it pleases me to know that that part of my childhood is still embedded in me.† (Beah, 17) Ishmael is quickly realizing he is being stripped of his innocence, fear and revenge are taking over his body so rapidly that he has no time but to respond to it with killing others. His final break away from his childhood ignorance was when he made his first human kill as a soldier boy. Panic and vengeance are what is in his mind with every pull of the trigger. He was no longer this inexperienced child that he was just a short time ago. He had changed and there was no doubt he could feel it. â€Å"Our innocence had been replaced by fear and we had become monsters.† (Beah, 55) Ishmael was no longer afraid to kill and thought with every shot taken that it was just revenge for the slaughter taken out on his family and village. Ishmael had never intended to turn into this malicious killer, but with the circumstances at hand this is what he needed to do to survive and find his way. The novel â€Å"The Old Chief Mshlanga† is a story a bout a 14-year-old girl who is growing up on her family’s African plain, who has quickly conformed to her parent’s racial behaviors. In her childhood, she only felt connected to England and never could really relate to the African landscape she has been growing