Journal 7 By Daniel Van Dyke

In Chapter 18-19 in A Long Way Gone Beah finishes his rehabilitation at the center and moves in with his Uncle Tommy. The character that has meant the most to me is Esther. She was the one who was able to get Beah to be rehabilitated. She made the connection with Beah that made him feel he wasn't alone even though at the time he thought his whole family was dead. She acted like Beah older sister and listen to anything Beah needed to talk about. If Esther wasn't there to care for Beah he wouldn't of been rehabilitated and probably would be sent back to the front lines of the war.

I feel that Ismael's rehabilitation is possible. Each boy has to make the decision whether or not he wants to be normal again in order for rehabilitation to work. This isn't a fast process either as in took Ismael five months until he was able to leave the center and live with his uncle. The memories of what Ismael did will always be apart of him and will have to live with those memories. He has learned how to deal with these memories by talking about them and not taking massive amounts of drugs to cover them up like when he was in the war. I think I would let him in the neighborhood after his has finished his rehabilitation and is under some kind of supervision. I know that at first I would be very worried that he might acted out and harm someone. But Beah is a boy after all even though he had to go through this war he is still just a boy.

Throughout the book Beah does a very good good explaining the scene that is going on in the current situation. This helps the reader create a picture in their head of the situation. I would mark in my book and say whats going on in my own words and describe what I see. When Beah would talk about how his uncle joked with the fact about Beah going to New York i can picture the two jokeing with each other. Earlier in the book he would tell us detail of war scene and often times this would give me the chills and can't believe he had to go through that.

My favorite passage was in Chapter 18 were Beah is debating on continuing living or not. He writes, "I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for, I have no family, its just me. No one will be able to tell stories about my childhood". During this time Esther is working on rehabilitating Beah who is showing signs of PTSD. The quote shows that PTSD doesn't only just affect adults it as can affect kids. Stories in Beah's culture is very important and with the lost of his family he loses the stories of his early years when he can't remember things for himself because he was too young. Later in the chapter he does find his uncle which and makes him feel that he does have a family.