A Long Way Gone Essay

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Recommended: Emotional and psychological effects of war on soldiers

There are kids hesitant to watch the fireworks because of fear. They fear the darkness at night, loud noises, and large crowds with people they don’t know. For some kids, fear has a negative impression and long term effect psychologically. They try hard to avoid and escape from the situation. Not every kid is lucky enough to escape from their fears. Much worse than the holiday trauma, there are many children in the African Ivory Coast, who suffer from diseases, hunger, poverty, and rape. In that environment, many kids had to go through fear and violence. When children cannot escape from their fear, they can be easily brainwashed by other people. The book, A Long Way Gone (2007) the story is about how Ishmael goes through the civil war and …show more content…

Ishmael kept running, and he met Musa, Alhaji, Kanei, Jumah, Moriba, and Saidu. He then started an escape journey with these kids. Children who used to live a normal life until the war completely changed them and transformed them into a whole different human being. No one in the country believed in kindness and love anymore. Children had to escape for their own lives. Sometimes they had no choice but to join the military to keep themselves alive. Ishmael’s life was finally changed by some good UNICEF people. He finally learned to forgive and gained back his humanity. There are few types of brainwashing method used in the military to keep the child soldiers energetic and injecting hate in them. While people believe that military people are the authorities, the Sierra Leone military used drugs, movies, and speech to keep the soldiers …show more content…

The speeches cause children to have revenge in their hearts and minds, and seeing the death of their friends and families are motivating them to fight. The war was coming, and the village needed more soldiers to keep the village safe. The boys were told to join the military or leave the village, but they knew there was only death once they leave the village. “‘Some of you are here because they have killed your parents or families, others because this is a safe place to be. Well, it is not that safe anymore. That is why we need strong men and boys to help us fight these guys, so what we can keep this village safe. You are free to leave, because we only want people here who can cook, prepare ammunition, and fight '"(106). The soldier continues to speak as if they know the orphans want to protect the families and not letting the children experience what they had experienced. [?] “‘This is your time to revenge the deaths of your families and to make sure more children do not lose their families’” (106). The speech is forcing the orphans to join the military. Seemingly, the army wants more people to join the military to keep the village safe. On the other hand, they are forcing the orphans to join the military because they know the orphans are going to either join the military or die when they step out of the village. They make the orphans think, but in a way they are forcing the orphans to join.

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