Over the past month or two we have been reading many articles and even the book “ Along Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah. These articles and this book have taken us into some child soldiers stories and what it was like having to participate in the war. These children were forced to take part in these crimes, they were brutally tortured, and many were shot because they didn’t obey their commanders. In my opinion I believe that child soldiers should be granted amnesty.
While you read the book” Along Way Gone,” by Ishmael you go on his journey of being a child soldier during the war in Sierra Leone. Ishmael was twelve years old when the war started. He was always on the run from the rebel armies. Ishmael lost many people in his life such as his
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Children as young as the age of five are brought into the armies.” They are also forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol.” (Child Soldiers, To what extent should child soldiers be held accountable for their crimes?) Just like on page 120 of A Long Way Gone,” I took turns at the guarding post around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread on the table, and of course taking more white capsules, as I had become addicted to them.” He would take this many-many times a day on a daily basis. Ishmael was hooked on these drugs from day one, and ever since he began craving drugs, it became a bad habit to his under developed mind. Being brainwashed was why his rehabilitation took so long. An example of the effects of the drugs was,” During that same week, the drugs were wearing off. I craved cocaine and Marijuana so badly that I would roll a plain sheet of paper and smoke it.” ( Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone page 139) It is almost like taking candy away from a baby. You take it away and they will cry to get it back. These drugs and the alcohol are what turned these children into what they so call them “killers”. The sad thing is if these kids refuse to take any of these substances he or she will
As a child, Ishmael Beah seemed like he was playful, curious, and adventurous. He had a family that loved him, and he had friends that supported him. Before the war, Ishmael had a childhood that was similar to most of the children in the United States. Unfortunately, the love and support Ishmael grew accustom to quickly vanished. His childhood and his innocence abruptly ended when he was forced to grow up due to the Sierra Leone Civil War. In 1991, Ishmael thought about survival rather than trivial things. Where was he going to go? What was he going to eat? Was he going to make it out of the war alive? The former questions were the thoughts that occupied Ishmaels mind. Despite his efforts, Ishmael became an unwilling participant in the war. At the age of thirteen, he became a
Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, narrates the story of Ishmael’s life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leonean civil war. Ishmael chronicles his journey from a scared, adrift child who lost his family in the war to a brutal child soldier who mercilessly killed many individuals to a guilt stricken rehabilitated teen who slowly learns to overcome his remorse from his past actions. Ishmael’s life as a child soldier first started when the Sierra Leonean army took him and his friends with them to the village, Yele, occupied by army officials and seemingly safe from the rebels. Unfortunately, within a few weeks of their stay, the rebels attacked Yele, and Ishmael and his friends decided to make the choice of becoming a child soldier in order to sustain their slim chances of staying alive. Ishmael’s interaction with violence was very different as a child soldier compared to as a civilian: while he witnessed violent actions before, as a child soldier he was committing them. As his life as a soldier demanded more violence from him, Ishmael sank deeper into the process of dehumanization with his main driving point being the revenge that he sought from the rebels for the deaths of his family and friends. After a few months as a child soldier, Ishmael was brought to the Benin home by UNICEF officials who hoped to rehabilitate the completely dehumanized child soldiers. With the help of Esther, a compassionate nurse, and other staff members in the center, Ishmael was able to ultimately reverse the effects of the war on him. By forgiving himself and the rebels who took away his close ones from him, Ishmael was able to restore his emotion of empathy and become rehabilitated.
Ishmael was a normal 12 year old boy in a small village in Sierra Leone when his life took a dramatic turn and he was forced into a war. War has very serious side effects for all involved and definitely affected the way Ishmael views the world today. He endured and saw stuff that most people will never see in a lifetime let alone as a young child. Ishmael was shaped between the forced use of drugs, the long road to recovery and the loss of innocence of his
In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael survives and describes his journey while at war. Ishmael was a 13 year old who is forced to become a child soldier. He struggles through a variety of problems. In his journey, he was separated from his family and mostly running for his life. Later on, he has no problem killing people and picking up his gun. In fact, anyone can be evil at any certain time with kids changing, getting drugged, and going back to war.
During the war, there were two prevalent groups. These were the army and the rebels, both of which offered Ishmael a questionable future. As we know, Ishmael ended up joining the army. About his experience in the army, Ishmael says “I had my gun now, and as the corporal always said “This gun is your source of power in these times.It will protect you and provide you all you need, if you know how to use it well.”” (p.124). This type of thinking is in short, self-destructive to Ishmael. It would mean that he would either end up dead during the war, or if he was to survive, it would be very unlikely for him to be rehabilitated because he had been so reliant on his gun during the war. In addition to this, it would leave Ishmael in a precarious state when the war ended if he had not been rehabilitated, since the only thing he knew to do for years was to kill. However, since he was able to be rehabilitated, he was able to conform to society once more. This, unfortunately, could have been prompted once again near the end of the book when history repeats itself when the AFRC took over Sierra Leone. “The entire nation crumbled into a state of lawlessness. I hated what was happening. I couldn’t return to my previous live.”. Once again, war comes knocking on Ishmael’s front door, and this time around Ishmael knows what war is like and what he is going to experience again. Ishmael was
Ishmael starts his journey with a will to escape and survive the civil war of Sierra Leone in order to reunite with his mom, dad, and younger siblings, who fled their home when his village was attacked by rebels. Having only his older brother, who he escaped with, and a few friends by his side Ishmael is scared, but hopeful. When the brothers are captured by rebels, Ishmael’s belief in survival is small, as indicated by his fallible survival tactics when he “could hear the gunshots coming closer…[and] began to crawl farther into the bushes” (Beah 35). Ishmael wants to survive, but has little faith that he can. He is attempting to survive by hiding wherever he can- even where the rebels can easily find him. After escaping, Ishmael runs into a villager from his home tells him news on the whereabouts of his family. His optimism is high when the villager, Gasemu, tells Ishmael, “Your parents and brothers wil...
As Ishmael’s life as a boy soldier slowly came to an end, these changes were the hardest to accept. He was given all knew clothes, lots of help, and was practically given his life back. A normal person would be happy to accept that, but Ishmael wasn’t exactly a normal person. His life was dedicated to being a boy soldier, and through that he develops a very violent mindset. When he is taken away from this atmosphere, he resorts to violence and has extreme drug withdrawal. ALong with that, he had severe migraines and wanted to be fighting for his country. Many other soldiers looked up to him for his dedication and contribution. Even though all they wanted to do was help him, he just wanted to fight.
As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any kind of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than simply a child with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18, being used as soldiers in 33 conflicts currently, and this figure continues to rise (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Similarly, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight ...
With the lack of food the two characters had to find a new tactic to not starve to death. Ishmael learned that if he became a soldier, even though it was completely dangerous and savage, he would be able to receive food and never have the need to run again. It was the only option for him to be able to survive this grueling war. He was able to eat well and get other necessities. Evidently, as a soldier, UNICEF began to recruit young soldiers to a rehabilitation center where they could learn to become sane and rehabilitate their bodies to health. This may have saved his life even further as the war came to a close and gave him the opportunity to leave the country and find a new life somewhere
A long way gone is the factual story of Ishmael Beah who turn out to be an unenthusiastic boy warrior throughout a civil warfare in Sierra Leone. In Chapter 1, at twelve years of age, January 1993 Beah’s town is attacked while he is gone performing in a rap group with accomplice’s. Since they planned to come back the following day, they didn’t farewell or communicate with anyone wherever they were going, little they knew that they will certainly not come back to their families. It all started when Gibrilla and Kaloko came home early after school and they brought with them grief-stricken update for the eruption of warfare at the mining area. Amongst the mix-up, viciousness and vagueness of the warfare, Ishmael, Junior and his friends roam from settlem...
Everyone knows how alcohol can stunt a child's growth of the brain and body, as well as drugs damaging their decision making (Child Soldiers, Prosecution). Not to mention if they are high or drunk that will sway their decisions to a side they normally wouldn’t go. Their leaders have forced them into taking unknown substances or drink a large amount of an alcohol that easily affects the young kids. This makes the kids follow orders easier, but makes them incapable of telling what is right or wrong. Which to their leaders, just makes them “the perfect weapon”(Armed and Underage). It is ultimately not their fault that they have hurt others and if the blame is put on someone, it should be on the ones who recruited and who controlled
Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the effects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation in war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as a young boy and the many issues he faces while living in horror.
Due to the fact, [“Marijuana and brown brown”] (page 121) are the main drugs given to the soldiers every day, and the reason of the drugs, makes the soldiers work harder and eventually become addicted. Drugs took a very substantial toll on the soldiers, and later on, rose the decision making of the children, and the ability to trust one another. As a result, the drugs caused Ishmael to “have no pity for anyone”(page 126), which means to not care or feel sorry for anyone. New perceptions are intact when the drugs kicked in, ultimately, going back to the drugs will have an effect on not caring for anyone. Ishmael was rewarded for the amount of time spent and hard work with the nickname “Green Snake”(page 144) because of “his inconspicuous positions, and ability to take out a whole village from shrub”(page 144). With the new nickname, the Lieutenant awarded, Ishmael felt happy with the way the army was treating the recruitments, and himself. All in all, the self esteem felt by the soldiers may not always be true, on the other hand, the drugs have skewed the mindsets of the children, consequently making the self esteem false.
In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the wilderness, is forced to face many physical and psychological dangers. By thirteen, he has been picked up by the government army, and is conditioned to fight in the war by being provided with as many drugs as he could consume (cocaine and marijuana), rudimentary training, and an AK-47. In the next two years, Beah goes on a mind-bending killing spree to avenge the death of his dear ones. At sixteen, he was picked up by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at the rehabilitation center, he learns to forgive himself and to regain his humanity.
...ys, they are seized by soldiers and taken to a village engrossed by the military fighting back at the rebels. The fellow children soldiers became Ishmael’s only family at the time, and each of them were supplemented with a white pill, “The corporal said it will boost your energy” says a young soldier. (116) Little did Ishmael and the others know that the tablet was an illicit drug given to them to fight their fatigue and anxiety for a short term to better them in combat with the rebels. Beah unknowingly alters into a blood-craving animal, who kills with numbness and no emotion. “I was not afraid of these lifeless bodies. I despised them and kicked them to flip them.” (119) Ishmael now relies and is addicted to drugs to get through his day-to-day life, including smoking marijuana, and constantly snorting “brown brown” (121) which is a mixture of gunpowder and cocaine.