During the war in Sierra Leone, both Ishmael Beah and Mariatu Kamara experienced the war personally, giving first-hand accounts of all the incidents, however, Beah emphasized more on how the war affected the society and the entire country, while Kamara only described how the war had an effect on her life rather than the society as a whole.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah emphasizes the chaos and destruction that the war brought upon not just his village but the entire society, in people's behaviours and their trust upon each other. “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything. We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to” (Beah 29). He acknowledges that the rebels' violence has forced himself and others like him to resort to "survival tactics." His world has been turned upside-down, and in the shock of his first few months' experience …show more content…
The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. In her review, Carina describes the book as, “The Bite of the Mango is the story of how Kamara lost her hands in a rebel attack in Sierra Leone, and – even more so – about how she lives afterwards” (12). With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. She did not feel the company of friends or family, deserted, left alone to face every new challenge, as evident from her writing. “As I sat on the ground and watched, I realized that the boy rebels who had hurt me must have families somewhere. I thought back to the rebel who’d said he wanted me to join them in the bush” (119). Here although she does make a connection on the rebel’s families, she relates them to herself on how she is also affected by
In A Long Way Gone, Beah emphasizes the chaos and destruction that the war brought upon not just his village but the entire society, in people's behaviours and their trust upon each other. “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything. We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to” (Beah 29). He acknowledges that the rebels' violence has forced himself and others like him to resort to "survival tactics." His world has been turned upside-down, and in the shock of his first few months' experience …show more content…
The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. In her review, Carina describes the book as, “The Bite of the Mango is the story of how Kamara lost her hands in a rebel attack in Sierra Leone, and – even more so – about how she lives afterwards” (12). With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. She did not feel the company of friends or family, deserted, left alone to face every new challenge, as evident from her writing. “As I sat on the ground and watched, I realized that the boy rebels who had hurt me must have families somewhere. I thought back to the rebel who’d said he wanted me to join them in the bush” (119). Here although she does make a connection on the rebel’s families, she relates them to herself on how she is also affected by