Compare/Contrast Essay: Child Soldiers

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Most would agree that murdering somebody before even being old enough to purchase a firearm is ridiculous, but the protagonists in both A Long Way Gone and All Quiet on the Western Front had to just that without even blinking an eye. Unfortunately, child soldiers have existed for many generations, and there is not much being done to stop it from happening. War has existed for centuries, but the use of children has proven to cause serious mental and physical illnesses that they will not recover from for the rest of their often shortened lives. Paul Baumer from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and Ishmael Beah from his memoir A Long Way Gone are forced to grow up and act much older and much more mature than they actually are as a …show more content…

Even though having Ismael fight is considered to be a war crime, he is not aware of this, and it causes him to be a forced child soldier. If he would have chosen to not become one, he would most likely been killed by the rebels. He is not alone however; it is estimated that 25 sovereign states use child soldiers in combat, and it is difficult for the United Nations to control the situations (Flock). Ishmael is forced to watch people he cares about die every day, including children younger than he. Once it is realized that there are child soldiers there was attempt to get them out and Ishmael was one of the lucky ones to get out sooner than his comrades. Unfortunately, many of the soldiers have gone through so much that they have mental illnesses, and it is difficult to return them to their old innocent selves. This pertains particularly to Ishmael, but Paul sees a similar situation happening. There are new recruits continuously arriving in Paul’s group, and they do not last long. Most are younger than he, and many of them die quickly due to a lack of training, and others go insane, which has various

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