The Bite Of The Mango Analysis

Children should never be victims of a war caused by man. Children of war experience horrendous situations which have the ability to scar them for life. In the Sierra Leonean Civil War, many children experience lack of food and shelter, the death of family and friends, as well as the loss of their innocence. In The Bite of the Mango, the main character, Mariatu Kamara is captured by the rebel forces fighting against the government in civil war, who maliciously cut off her hands. Mariatu learns how to live without hands and to live with the memories of the traumatic experience (Kamara and McClelland). Ishmael Beah, the narrator of A Long Way Gone, is recruited as a child soldier to defend Sierra Leone against the rebels. He commits horrible crimes while on numerous drugs, and witnesses horrendous acts of war (Beah). …show more content…
The children of the war experienced family hardships due to the environment and situations. Mariatu did not live with her mom and dad, but instead with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a nearby village. When the rebels attacked the village where she was residing in, she was out fetching supplies. She …show more content…
War affected the life of these two innocent children and caused them horrible pain. Children of war lose their childhood and many do not even experience adulthood due to premature death. Both the experience of becoming an amputee and a child soldier resulted in extreme hardships for Mariatu and Ishmael, but both were able to grow from this astonishing tragedy, and grow as individuals. These two children fought their own internal war of overcoming mental barriers, and