A long way gone, Discussion #3

   In the third discussion of the book A Long Way Gone, we spoke many times about events in the rehabilitation center and the death of people in the war. The book ends with Ishmael, the author, being chosen to go to a rehab center with half of the soldiers he worked with and to recover from his past experiences. In the ending he works well with a lady, Esther, who helps him recover and a man Leslie who helps him find his Uncle who just happens to live in this new place, Sierra Leone. Along with this, he is united with a family member who loves Ishamel and Ishmael attends a conference in New York to talk about children who deal with war. He goes back home after the conference to Sierra Leone and Sierra is raided by rebels and soldiers who are fighting each other but disrupts the capital. Ishmael doesn't like the news but doesn't panic as much as the civilians do because this isn't his first time dealing with war. He is all too familiar with these war tactics and leaves the city because he doesn't want the soldiers to recruit him, again. He fears joining the army again and witnessing deaths of people he care about.
   The most important factor of Ishmael's life is rehabilitation center because he learns to get off his drugs and stops being so violent. He says he is a child now and not a soldier. Because of the center he turned from "kill any rebel, no matter what" to a regular boy who enjoys life. He craves drugs in the beginning of rehab and sells school supplies to a dealer. He throws stones at people who get water and stabs people that are rebels. He makes people's lives miserable, but everyone claims, its not their fault.
    Our discussion discussed why he seemed like he liked war more than the rehab center at first. He seemed as if he liked war more possibly because of the violence he enjoyed. He only fought rebels because the soldiers recruited them and told them that they killed their families. The soldiers kind of brainwashed them by telling them lies to make them kill the rebels off and giving the young soldiers drugs to take to relieve of pain when they are shot so they'd have no idea and just keep fighting harder and harder. He seemed as if he liked war more because of his lieutenant because when he left his leader, he wanted to turn back around the truck he was in, and go back.
   Ishmael didn't know what war meant. He'd rather stay in war than go to rehab, a safe place with food. It is easy to survive. He ends up having to escape Sierra Leone and given a story told, but his family keeps on leaving him.