A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah describes his life in the past when he was a soldier for the Revolutionary Army in Sierra Leon. So far in the story he describes how he led a normal life leading towards Revolutionary Army taking over the villages, getting closer to him and others. "This town will will be next, according to the teachers."(pg 9). During part of the book, their home was being attacked by the rebels.

Going through certain sections in the book, certain themes of the book were shown in the book. Those themes are what makes the book what it is. Ishmael Beah wanted the readers of his book to understand not only what he was going through but as well as all of Sierra Leon. 

One of the themes are shown in the book is fear. The rebel army in the book is portrayed as the type of group that is able to cause chaos to anyone because their ideals are not being followed by others.

They spread their influences towards the children, (especially the boys) because children tend to be easily influenced. 

Another theme that is represented in the book is separation. This theme however can be separated in to sub categories. The separation of Ishmael and his family and friends and the separation of his own self consciousness to realize what is right and wrong. Separation had begun from the moment the rebels were taking over villages. Children were stuck without their parents and had to rely on themselves for their survival. Ishmael also had in a way, a separation within himself. The beginning of the story shows how he was a collected person. But as the war goes on and with him fighting in it is well, he is often confusing on how he should deal with his feelings.

Alternate Endings

Alternate Endings for Eragon

As we all know from the previous posts, Eragon's life is changed when he sees a blue stone appear out of nowhere in the middle of the woods. He keeps the stone and later it hatches into a baby dragon. No knowing what trials awaited him in the future, he keeps the dragon and raises it as if he was part of the family. When the empire figures out that a kid from a small village has a dragon, Eragon is then hunted down. He flees his home traveling from place to place with Brom and Saphira and together, Brom teaches Eragon the ways for the dragon rider in order to restore true peace to the world.

But if he never found the dragon's egg in the woods? What if Eragon had sold the egg to the town's butcher? What if he had never met Brom? All of these answer that I will show you would be my alternative endings to Eragon's quest for peace.

If Eragon had never found the Dragon's egg in the woods, the Empire might have already have found it. Around the same time that Eragon was in the woods, elsewhere, a elven warrior named Arya was in charge of safely delivering the egg to a secret location . Almost being successful, Arya went from route A to route B. However, she was ambushed by the empire's soldiers. She quickly used a magic spell to teleport the egg to a random location so that the empire would not get their hands on it. If Eragon did not find the egg, the empire would have traveled from one end of the earth to the other until they found it. Once they have, the empire would have complete control of the world. Another possible ending to this is that someone else may have found the egg and kept it for themselves, therefore creating a different dragon rider.

If Eragon had sold the egg to the town's butcher named Sloan, him and his family would have become rich off of his finding. Eragon would have never became a rider. He would have used the money he had to build a better house and farm for him and his family. Roran, Eragon's brother would not have to move away from his family to get a better job to support him and his new wife Katrina, They wouldn't have gone far away and his family would be safe since the empire wouldn't he after them.

Lastly, if he never met Brom, his adventure would have been short lived. He would have never known how to raise Saphira to become stronger. He would have no clue as to how to train himself. He also would have been hunted down and killed by the empire's men. The empire might have also kidnap Eragon and Saphira. The king might have forced them to do their bidding. Eragon would have become stronger, but at the same time he would be working for the evil that he had sworn to defeat.