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Emotional effects of war on soldiers
Emotional effects of war on soldiers
War and its effects on society
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In the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is about a boy who gets mixed up in the violence of war. A boy named Ishmael, traveled to his grandmother's village in hopes to seek food and shelter. When he was at his grandmother's house he saw the tragedies of the war as innocent people were injured, blood oozing out, skin draping off their bodies, and dead people being dragged. Ishmael and his friends were mortified of what was happening, as they hid from the danger they hoped to find peace in the madness of the world.
As he traveled across villages looking to find safety, he had accidently became mixed up in the tragedy of the war. He was young and witnessed horrible disasters, but he couldn't do anything but fight his way through this terrible journey. Ishmael wasn't the only boy suffering, his group of friends who were at his grandmother's house with him were suffering as well. They had faced many catastrophes along their journey, such as stealing food from others and had beaten others. As he went from village to village he had gotten himself caught in the war.
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He kept fighting alongside the war and he soon became adapted to it, he was forever indebted to the war. The violence had taught him that murdering children and families was justifiable even if it was his own. Ishmael wasn't immune to his emotions; war had showed him towards the path of drugs and darkness. The drugs helped suppress the soldiers emotions and gave them the courage to fight. After many fearless fights Ishmael dedicated himself to, his Lieutenant decided it was enough, he needed help. The help he received at the rehabilitation center reminded him of the past he had left behind of war and the future he now chose to
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
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
Ishmael also survives another dreadful event when he goes through the war. While trying to find refuge from the war, Ishmael and his friends ironically end up joining the army, to fight against the rebels. Over the course of his time in the war, Ishmael would be exposed to unparalleled violence day in and day out. During these times Ishmael says “Sometimes we were asked to leave for war in the middle of a movie. We would come back hours later after killing many people and continue the movie as if we had just returned from intermission. We were always either at the front lines, watching a movie, or doing drugs. There was no time to be alone or to think” (p. 124). This quote perfectly sums up the danger that Ishmael experienced during the war. Most of this danger however, was not the fact that he was likely to be injured or killed. Granted, he was on the front lines numerous days a week and snuck behind enemy lines frequently, both tasks which could have resulted in an injury, or worse, death, but the real dangers he faced during these times were dehumanization he faced constantly. Everyday, he either went out into the
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...
Life is made up of decisions and choices. Every single day, people make numerous decisions, some big and some small. Many choices can impact your entire life while others, like what you eat for breakfast, aren’t as important. However, all of your choices build the track for your life and make you who you are. The choices you make can be greatly impacted by your surroundings and environment. They are also made based on your values and beliefs. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael is a young fourteen year old boy thrown in the middle of Sierra Leone's civil war. During the war, Ishmael is given a series of obstacles where he is required to make important life choices that would impact his life greatly. At one part of Ishmael's
Ishmael learned human language and culture at zoos and menageries, and began to think about the world in a way completely differently than he would have in the wild. The narrator has similar feelings of living in captivity, but has trouble articulating how or why.
Most people who Ishmael came in contact with and himself, had a conflict between trust and survival. This conflict became an effect of the war in which many people suffered because they chose to live over a possible death. Beah retells his traumatic experience that gives countless situations where survival is picked over trust. In a world without war trust and survival can be
Ishmael’s search for revenge ended when he was taken out of the front lines of the war by
...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.
In addition to him having to overcome difficult odds in order to survive for himself, he also had to care for his weakening father. A similar situation occurs in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, however, Ishmael accepts the situation and is able to defend himself. While they differ in their ability to defend themselves, they both relate in that they need to fight, both mentally and physically, in order to survive. not only because of the hardships they faced, but also because of what they had to do in order to survive. “‘I have never spoken about the Holocaust except in one book.’”
Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CHRONOLIGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF EVENTS THAT LEAD TO CONFLICTS 3 CONCLUSION 5 INTRODUCTION An attention-grabbing story of a youngster’s voyage from beginning to end. In “A LONG WAY GONE,” Ishmael Beah, at present twenty six years old, tells a fascinating story he has always kept from everyone. When he was twelve years of age, he escaped attacking the revolutionaries and roamed a land rendered distorted by violence. By thirteen, he’d been chosen by the government, military and Ishmael Beah.
It was not Ishmaels fault that he killed many people, although that is just how he was brought into the war. He was forced in it as a perpetrator and his two options were to kill or be killed by the rebels. Ishmael was a victim of brainwashing and his childhood was stolen from him. He had a long and tortuous journey before he became an innocent victim of brainwashing. As a normal young boy living an average life, you would expect them to be involved in fun, innocent activities rather than a young boy and having all of that taken away to become a soldier against his will. “It took the boy two attempts to cut off my right hand. The first swipe didn't go all the way through the bones, which I saw sticking out in all different shapes and sizes” ( Kamara 40). The boy that carried out his horrific and gruesome deed was no older than Mariatu was. Mariatu begged them not to cut her hands off. She told them that if they did cut her hands off that she would rather them just kill her, but the small boy soldier did not agree. This boy soldier wanted to see her suffer and almost a trophy for him. Mariatu passed out and woke up realizing that it was not a nightmare, that she really did not have hands. She was in pain for many days until she got treated. Mariatu was clearly a victim of torture and horrendous activities carried out
To illustrate, he had been trained to survive, kill, fight, and hurt, however he ended up recovering his sense of humanity. Beah had forgotten about the little things in life that made a positive difference because his mind and body weren't in his own hands while fighting in the war. Ishmael stated "When i was a child, my grandmother told me that the sky speaks to those who look and listen to it.", showing that he believed that if you have an open mind, good things can come of it. The young man then regained his self control soon after remembering this life lesson that his grandmother preached. "We must strive to be like the moon.", the moon representing something greater than violence and civil conflict. That had him searching for something to keep him going and that gave him a reason to push forward and conquer. Even though he states that "We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been tainted by the same experiences that still cause us great pain and sadness.", he still was able to hold onto the slim bit of hope he had left in order to endure through this
When Ishmael became a child soldier he didn’t have anything to really live for but the next day. His family was killed and he was hollow inside. He had to hide his emotions not only from the people around him but also from himself in order to focus on his daily goal of surviving another day. That’s not how it has always been for him though. In the beginning his survival mechanism was
Freedom is shown through symbols such as guns, rehabilitation and the cassettes that Ishmael has throughout the war. Freedom is something Ishmael Beah is given being a solider in the war and also create an easier life for him. The first symbol of freedom is the Ak 47 that Ishamel Beah is given in the army and it is a symbol of freedom. Ishmael Beah states, “Whenever I looked at rebels during raids, I got angrier, because they looked like the rebels who played cards in the ruins of the village where I had lost my family. So when the lieutenant gave orders, I shot as many as I could, but I didn 't feel any better.” (122) The loss of his family is how he channels his pain by having hatred towards the rebels who killed them. Ishmael channels his anger by the fire of his gun. The gun is freedom where he can kill anyone he wants. He believes if all the rebels are killed he will have successfully achieved freedom, peace and his soul would be healed. Freedom can also be defined as having a sense of security in the world and that is exactly what a guns gives you too. A gun gives you sense of security and confidence. If someone is coming after you and you pull out your gun they will immediately stop and back off. It gives you protection. Ishmael has the freedom to kill. Another symbol of freedom is when he is in rehabilitation. This provides him a chance to be at peace with his new self