Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

“Humans are emotional, humans are short-tempered beings”, the remark many people receive when they collapse to their emotions. Tell that to Ishmael, a boy who plunges straight through the horrors of war and still returns to what people consider normal. Ishmael Beah is a child of warfare, fleeing from the conflict whenever it caught up with him. When it envelops him, the government recruits him as a child solider, but the freedom group UNICEF removes him from combat. Later in a center the corporation supports, UNICEF restores the tattered Ishmael to an innocent child. In tales of this childhood in war, Ishmael proves that humans are resilient beings, who can break through any adversary in their path. Ishmael’s many conflicts in the story illustrate

While beginning to absorb the idea of war, the first grisly sights began to induce a natural fear while he is wandering around in the warzone. Ishmael first acknowledges this after viewing the escapees from his hometown, Mogbwemo, as “The image of that woman and her baby plagued [his] mind” (14) during his return to Mattru Jong. These ghastly sights are a large factor throughout Ishmael’s ordeal, during his time in combat and coming back to haunt him during rehab. At some points, he would simply stop progressing, as the fear and sadness threaten to overwhelm him at various points in his journey. Even though he lives with this fear for quite a while, he still goes off happily to become a child solider, killing rebel soldiers without sadness and plenty of satisfaction. “Killing had become as easy as drinking water” (122) for Ishmael, which he mentions while discussing his beginning as a solider. Victims of these heartless acts would come to haunt him as well, with the guilt that he is the one who kills them and the terror of participating in actual combat. Even though all of these complications make the idea of recovery obsolete, Ishmael pulls past the stained experiences in his past in order to accomplish recovery. Benin Home eventually decides his mental state is sufficient, so “[He] was to be repatriated

The cassette tape he receives from Esther at Benin home is a real gift to him, mainly because of his childhood experiences with the rap songs. He expresses his joy as “When [he] unwrapped it, [he] jumped and hugged her” (154) when he saw the cassette. The cassette represents his childhood, flowing back to him in rehab and the cassette is an extension of that. Apparently, his old cassettes protect him from harm at various villages, along with the rapping and dancing in his childhood. During his time as a child solider, he is also given an AK 47 rifle that becomes his prized possession as a solider, his tool in killing the rebels. Apparently, the weapon became more than an object, as “[His] gun was [his] provider and protector, and my rule was kill or be killed” (128). Of course, these victims join the nightmares he recalls in Benin home, after he lost a thirst for vengeance against the rebels. Among all this, he takes drugs such as cocaine as a solider, which amounts to quite a bit of negligence. “After seven doses of these drugs, all [he] felt was a numbness to everything” (121) is what happens after he starts sniffing brown-brown (cocaine mixed with gunpowder). Ignorance at this cruelty causes him to gain an addiction along with more unforgiveable nightmares in rehab. Compared to if he feels remorse at