Sierra Leone Civil War

written by Ishmael Beah, are both stories telling one of many otherwise overlooked tragedies of war. Those who are not forced to fight never see the true horror of the war. Many think of war as something heroic and honorable, and focus on the idea that it is bringing justice and fighting for one’s country. They only see the patriotism fighting. However, people lack the understanding of the horrors that war brings. In All Quiet on the Western Front, even the German head-master has no idea. He…

soldiers are perpetrators. The real question though, is whether or not all child soldiers should be given amnesty (legal forgiveness) after the war is over. But with further research, it is clear that overall, child soldiers should be given amnesty if they were forced or manipulated into joining the war. Child soldiers usually don’t decide to join the war, they are forced. According to the article “Armed and Underaged”, about 200,000 children per year become underaged child soldiers, and most…

Salva is a young boy in a tribe called the Dinka tribe. They are enemies with the Nuer tribe. A war breaks out while Salva is in school and his teacher tells him to run into the bush away from home. Salva is a character in Linda Sue Park's novel, A Long Walk to Water. The book describes the struggle for Salva, who had to run away because a war broke out. The outline of the story shows that in reality, many kids face this trouble. Salva proves that people are capable of being able to survive on…

All through life, there is a continuous battle between having the capacity to trust different people, while surviving. Inside Ishmael Beah's record of his life entitled A Long Way Gone, he mourns how war has ruined the happiness regarding meeting individuals that he once had. Beah had to confront with new individuals often, which made him be wary of whether putting his trust in that individual could end up being the root starting point of his demise one day. As Ishmael meets diverse people for…

Perseverance is an important theme in A Long Walk to Water and is demonstrated by Salva in this story. The first example is Salva, he had to persevere through many things. The first thing he had to persevere through is getting away from the rebel soldiers. Salva had to run away from his home and family in the hope of seeing them again. Salva encountered many occasions where the rebel soldiers killed many people around him and Salva had to keep persevering through these tragedies. In this story…

fault and had didn’t have the choice to. For example, the child soldiers were brainwashed and were taught to do violent things. According to the book, A Long Way Gone, they were abducted and were taken away to learn to kill others to stay alive in a war zone. It says, “My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed,” (Beah, 2007). This demonstrates child soldiers like him were specifically taught to use their gun to protect themselves from other…

throughout the story. He starts out as an innocent ten year old boy that didn’t understand much about the war or realize it would be coming to his village. He then faces his village being taken by the rebels, he is now homeless and must try to survive, making him a refugee. After all that he went through escaping the rebels and other people who wanted to cause him harm, he was captured by the Sierra Leone Military. They taught him how to fight and turned him into a child soldier. As an…

Situations of high pressure and little time call for quick action. In 1991, war erupted in Sierra Leone. Everyone was affected, even the children. There was no time to for them to evolve; thus, they tried to tackle the war before properly learning how to handle it. In each of their stories, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara, two children who experienced the war in Sierra Leone tell about the severe circumstances they were in along with the choices they…

The narrator encounters allot during this section. First he didn’t know where to find Ishmael, no one would tell him where he was and Ishmael felt hurt and betrayed by him. To break the ice, the narrator tries to bribe the caretakers of Ishmael to leave him alone with Ishmael. This resembles the relationship between the man and Ishmael is very strong and that he wants to rekindle things. During the time the narrator and Ishmael were left alone, they start talking about the Leavers and Takers.…

example when ishmael was going to reunite with his family just before he got there it was burned down causing ishmael to want to avenge his brother. Esther is a nurse at the rehab and has basically rehabilitated ishmael’s emotional outlook on the war. she has done this by bringing him back to his childhood through music and getting him to write down his feelings when…