A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah (Text-Society)

The second memoir I have chosen for this class is A Long Way Gone. It revolves around the childhood of a young boy in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah's life is torn apart when the civil war starts. He is separated from his family and friends, with no home, and no food.

A realization I came upon while reading this novel was the fact that the environment can highly impact a person's mood. Throughout much of the beginning portion of this memoir, Ishmael spends his time traveling with a group of other boys around his age. They stay together because as a group, they have a much better chance for survival. However, this group goes through much emotional hardship together, and this is all caused by the environment.
The country of Sierra Leone, is a war ravaged place. Often there is no food to eat, only unripe, sour oranges picked right from the bushes. They walk tens of miles a day, with ripped crapes, they shiver uncontrollably when it rains all night, with no shelter but the leaves of the trees above. When they find themselves lucky enough to spend the night in the hospitality of a village, rebels could come at any time, with no mercy for anyone. However, they also find an abundance of joy and prosperity along their journey. The boys are overcome with joy when they find themselves in the middle of a village ceremony. After helping the village get ready for the celebration, they eat and dance late into the night. As you can see, this book especially shows how the environment can affect mood.

http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/healing-environment/what-impact-does-environment-have-us

After doing some research, I found an article about how the environment affects the mood. It supports my realization and suggests that people try to find places that psychologically comfort them. The three most important attributes are comfort, safety and entertainment. These key points can help explain why Ishmael was constantly on the run with his pack of boys. At villages, they found food and hospitality from locals, but didn't feel comfortable staying and living off of others. When Ishmael lived in the forest, he was comfortable and extremely safe from rebels, but it was really boring. The only thing he could do was think about his family and mourn. Thus, always being on the run caused an environmental stress. As the source suggests, when a person feels an environmental stress, their mood is impacted. A learned a lot more about this idea and am glad that I can apply this to my book.