The Institutional Affiliation
The methodological considerations outlined in Ungar Ed. (2005) “Methodological Challenges in the Study of Resilience” allows to critically evaluate the memories described in “A long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beach. The author of the first work discussed in details the challenges that scientists face in the process of studying resilience. The methodological issues that were brought to the forefront help to understand the main message and intent of the Beach story. They spur the associations and apply to the theme raised in “A long Way Gone”.
Claims. The memories by Ishmael Beach focus on a war through the eyes of children. It tells terrifying story retrieved from the memories of the author when he was a young boy. He endured a nightmare in reality but demonstrated an incredible resilience that gave him the future. By no accident, the author builds a story around his childish memories instead of telling it on behalf of someone else. He highlights the importance of a child and their understanding of the happening. In this case, the author calls for the importance of understanding children mind, their behavior and nature when everything, tangible and intangible is being ruined, when there is no way to escape and run from it. The author uses the young boy's voice to describe the cruelty, merciless, relentless of the war. Through the methodology, he argues that every child has their own vision and perception which is highly important to remember in a process of conducting a study. Both resilience and other notions acquire new, different meaning when they are applied to children. The way children see and perceive things reveal and unfold them. Same as Ungar, who accents on the importance of children's perception in the study of resilience, Beach tells an adult story from the viewpoint of a child who barely turned ten. It helps him to highlight his main claim and significance of the problem described in the book.
Logic. The author wrote his memories to communicate the real tragedy and terror of a war to people. Being an adult he observed that people do not fully realize the horror of coping with a war, of losing literally everything including parents, family, home, and peace. A number of stories told by different authors about the same topic lead to misunderstanding, different perception, and stereotypes. It has been proved that in order to understand and explore the topic of resilience, the researchers must listen and concentrate on children's needs and consideration. A failure to do it might mislead the scientists in their attempt to explore the subject and conduct a qualitative study. On the other hand, children awake more emotions and empathy, their words sound louder, there are more clarity and sincerity in them. Such method drew attention to the problem which Beach urges all to realize. It eliminated risks of being treated differently. Due to the fact that the author resorted to his own childish memories, he managed to define and illustrate the notion of resilience in the most successful way. I believe that if the author tried to describe threats and terror of a war using other examples such as destruction of the economy, society and a state itself, it wouldn't make critics and readers recognize that “everyone in the world should read this book we should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human” (See, 1998).
Evidence. By describing how his child life was ruined by the war, the author makes the readers see the conflict in its worst possible light. Moreover, recalling the boy's suffering, turned to be the most accurate and effective method of influencing the audience. As we all know, the desire to live and the need to have food are the two main instincts which are programmed in people minds when they are born. A threat to any of these basic need awakens the strongest emotions and feelings. Beach chose these two aspects to convey his main thesis and point of the story. One of the first chapters of the book tells how the main character and his friends try to escape from the rebels overcoming a long way without water, food, money and enough clothes. They try to lose concentration, strength, and energy to move further because they have nothing to eat. The author describes the health and feelings of the boys so believable, no other method would have been more effective in Beach's attempt to make people think about the existence, the world and their mission in it. Qualitative study described in Ungar Ed. (2005) proves that resilience means hope for most children. Regardless the story and circumstances they all viewed the resilience as a bridge to better life. Young Beach-soldier and his friends dreamed about the time when they escape from the terror of war and begin a new life. They demonstrated patience and endurance, seeing no other salvation except for the resilience. Throughout the research, Ungar accents on the diversity of children's experiences and ideologies, which might mislead the scientist in making the only correct decision. He claims that every child is unique and requires personal approach. In his story, Beach describes a unique world of the main character. He stresses on it through his interests, the music he liked, the clothes he wore, even memories that mattered to him the most – his mother and father, grandparents, his friends and home. The author also reaches his claim by using a lot of details. He describes characters, places, episodes, events using the smallest facts. He sounds logical and consistent. In his desire to show a complex and historically significant event in the clearest and close to the reader way, he concentrates on choosing the right character and tools to portray his challenge. This world that Beach created for himself helped him to escape from the cruel reality that, very seemingly, would have absorbed him. However, he managed to survive because he never actually lived in the reality that chased him. In his mind, he kept recalling his family, his father sitting in the yard, his mother cooking and teaching him recipes, his grandmother explaining him metaphors, in particular, the meaning of being “like a moon” (Beach, 1998). He surrounded himself with things in his mind that meant resilience to him, that would help him to overcome threat and danger. As a little child, Beach kept looking, searching and trying. Portraying the story using the methodology of involving children to convey the main idea of the book to the audience proved its effectiveness. The concept lead the author to recognition and acceptance. Assumptions. The author’s attempt to accent the attention of the society on the eternal problem of all times was successful. His story of the escape contributed to better understanding of the study of resilience. Beach concluded that children are strong in their strive for better life, for basic needs and a little happiness. He proved that children's mind can be powerful and resistant to external factors. Moreover, Beach raised a lot of questions everyone should and must think about in a continuous pursuit of empty values. Critics called the book “a must for every schools collection”, “a mesmerizing tale that provides a haunting lesson about how gentle folks can be capable of great brutalities” and promise that it “will leave you breathless” (Patton & Isaacson, 1998). I agree with the critics since the book took my breath from the first chapter and made me read it at one go. Due to the right choice of the methodological consideration, the author found the best way to reveal the significance of the subject and to prove its relevance.
Alternative arguments. Ungar mentioned that resilience can be built on many other factors, which were not used by Beach. He concentrated on the positivity of being resilient in the most challenging environment. Nevertheless, there can be a lot of other, in particular, negative means of reaching and fulfilling the needs. The author mentions some of them as hos own observations of other people. Nevertheless, he proves that his way of being resilient, strong and battalions for his freedom still guided him to the dream.
Reference page
Beach, I. (1998). A long Way Gone. Memories of a boy soldier. New York: Sarah Crichton Books.
