A Long Way Gone, By Ishmael Beah; A Text to Society Connection

I am currently reading a book called "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. This book is about Ishmael's past, as a child soldier.  The horrors of his life terrified me. I kept imagining what I would do in his situation. His decisions allowed me to see how brave, how strong, he was to face all these great trials and tribulations.

A realization I got from this book is that decisions can be affected by your environment and situation. In the book, Ishmael and his friends are in war torn Sierra Leone and struggle to survive. During the course of the book, Ishmael himself and his friends have to make multiple important decisions. In these decisions, I realized that their decisions were usually influenced by their environment and or situation. For example; when the rebels attacked his hometown, the anxious mood in the air and the friends around him, influenced his decision to go back to the village to look for his family.

Another example of when the environment/setting affected Ishmael's decision making was when he was all alone in the forest, trying to stay away from the rebels who were trying to capture him. The forest was perfectly safe from the rebels, and he could have stayed there. But, the fact that his environment was lonely and he had no communication with another human influenced his decision making. He decided to move on, to look for other humans to stay with. These two examples from my book clearly show how my realization that decisions can be affected by your environment and situation is evident in the book. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-psychology-behind-political-debate/201006/does-where-you-vote-affect-how-you-vote

This realization can also be applied to our society today. I decided to research and find more information on this topic. After awhile, I found what i was looking for. Today, according to Psychology Today, the place you vote at influences your vote. For example; When voting on an issue like same sex marriage, the people voting at a church were more likely to vote conservative. This shows how the environment affects the decisions of people in society today. So, my realization clearly links my book to society today.