Consequences Of Mariatu And Ishmael's A Long Way Gone

Both Mariatu and Ishmael go into the Sierra Leone war unknowing of the physical and psychological transformation that will be forced upon them. This transformation, their loss of innocence, rids them of their childhood and forces them to endure experiences inappropriate for children. Mariatu, whose story is told in The Bite of the Mango, is a young girl whose hands are cut off by rebel soldiers. After traveling a long way for medical attention, she undergoes surgery and later finds out that she is pregnant due to being raped a few months earlier. Ishmael’s story, A Long Way Gone, shares his journey as a child soldier. While running from the rebels, the government army picks up Ishmael. He becomes one of the top soldiers, known for his ability …show more content…
Mariatu’s physical loss of innocence is the loss of her hands, a respected man in her village raping her, and her having to give birth to this man’s baby. When the rebels slice her hands off, she is forced to learn how to live without the use of them (Kamara & McClelland 40). After they cut off her hands, she is in excruciating pain, but knows that she needs to run to try and find help. Parents and other adults are supposed to take care of a child’s pain, but in this circumstance, she must care for herself. She has been forced to act like an adult in order to survive. When Salieu rapes Mariatu, she does not understand what has happened. She knows what he has done, but does not realize that what he has done could get her pregnant (Kamara & McClelland 68). Salieu has stolen her purity, and in result, her childhood innocence. When Mariatu is told she is pregnant, she does not know what the word means or even how a woman becomes pregnant (Kamara & McClelland 66). After coming to the realization that she is going to have Salieu’s baby, she tries to overdose on pills. She prays and asks Allah to take the baby and her, thinking that all her family has left. Fortunately, Abibatu is sleeping beside her and quickly smacks the pill bottle out of Mariatu’s hands (Kamara & McClelland 71). Mariatu must …show more content…
After Mariatu’s arms are cut off, she walks through the forest to find help. She comes across a man who after noticing her hands were cut off, tries to feed her:
‘Here,’ he said, holding the mango up to my mouth for me to eat. But I shook my head. I couldn’t eat from his hands. It felt wrong to be fed like a baby. ‘Put it in there,’ he said, lifting my arms gently and placing the mango in between the folds of the fabric. I raised my arms and managed to take a few bites of the juicy fruit (Kamara & McClelland 48).
Mariatu has come to face her reality of a life with no hands. She continues on her way to find a clinic that can help her, but even after they rid her body of infection, she will still need to learn a lot about living with no hands. When Mariatu is told she is pregnant, she has to come to terms with the reality that she is going to have the son of her rapist. Her loss of innocence forces her to face the hard reality in front of her. It is the job of parents to protect their child from the harsh realities of society, but Mariatu had to face them herself. She has help occasionally and especially once Abdul is born, but regardless, this reality is unfathomable for a child to face. She was a child thrown into a world of adult problems. The opposite of reality is a fake state of mind, which is what Ishmael was in. Throughout his loss of innocence, he is