chpater 14 journal four shae

Chapter 14

“The Winner”

In chapter 14, in the book A Long Way Gone, the most important part to me was on page 124. In this chapter we see a different side of Ishmael and I don’t think that any of us readers were expecting what he didn’t mind doing in this part of the book. In this chapter there are five prisoners. The lieutenant chose 5 boys to kill each of the men. The way they had to kill them was by slitting their throats on the lieutenants command. Beah wrote, “ We had our bayonets out and we were supposed to look in the faces of the prisoners as we took them out of this world.” (Beah 124). Ishmael had become a killer and he didn’t mind which I found very important in this chapter. The way Beah wrote about Ishmael killing the prisoner on page 125 was very in depth and cruel. I think that Beah wrote this and dramatized this part of the book to show that Ishmael is not the same boy he used to be in the beginning of the war. When Beah wrote “ I slit his throat and one fluid motion. His Adams apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out. His eyes rolled up and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance, as if caught by surprise.” (Beah 125). This made me feel sick to my stomach to listen to all of the stuff that Ishmael has gone through and now he is doing the same to others. 

The transformation of Ishmael in chapter 14 is just crazy to me he is a whole different person now. Just reading that Ishmael is proud of the kills he makes and how he enjoys competing with the other boys seeing who can kill someone faster just wows me. I feel that Ishmael is a changed person and I don’t think that he can honestly go back to the boy he was after what has happened in these last few chapters. Ishmael isn’t afraid anymore and that’s very scary. He had said in this chapter that killing someone was almost as easy as drinking water and that is definitely something that has changed for him since he became apart of the war (actually fighting in it). This chapter definitely shows how much Ishmael has changed and I personally think he isn’t gonna change back to the innocent little boy he was before. He might stay this way forever….