A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

Ishmael and his companions find themselves close to starvation after several days of wandering in the forest. They decide to risk returning to Mattru Jong, the village from which they escaped during a rebel attack to retrieve some cash Ishmael left behind. They make the long trek back and then walk a long distance to another village where vendors sell traditional local food in the street. Upon their arrival, they are devastated to see that the food sellers are no longer in operation; the danger they risked in getting the cash was futile, and they are so hungry that they are weak and squabbling with one another. One evening, they see a five-year-old boy eating two boiled ears of corn. Without preliminary discussion, the starving group rushes at the child and steals the corn from him. Later, the boy’s mother, realizing that the action was motivated by extreme hunger, gives each of them an ear of corn to eat.

Ishmael has a temporary sense of guilt, but he feels that his survival was at stake and there was no other recourse. The corn may be thought to illustrate the desperate measures to which the children are forced to resort in their effort to survive.