All in present tense
Thesis: No, he was not responsible for his transformation to a violent perpetrator.
Topic: Lieutenent would hurt him if he didnt do xyz
Quote from lieutenanta saying he would kill Ish if he didnt join soldier
Evidence: Most people would choose to join the army over being killed.
Becoming a soldier was the major step to becoming a violent perpetrator
Quote from lieutenent forcing Ish to do something
Evidence:
Conclusion: The Lieutenent would force Ish into doing things, which contributed to Ish becoming a violent PERPETRATOR
Topic: He wanted revenge on the rebels, which is a viable trait to have after you see someone burn your family.
Quote from when Ish was fighting with someone after family died
Evidence: When someone you love dies, the
Before encountering the war, ten year old Ish was told of unimaginable, exaggeratedm and unrealistic stories about the war
Ishmael is not responsible for his transformation to a violent perpetrator because the combination of drugs, a manipulative lieutenant, and the feeling of revenge is responsible for Ishmael’s transformation.
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If you are faced with the decision of death or joining the military, you would probably join the military.
This decision is the exact same decision that Ishmael faced with the lieutenant. When the lieutenant congregates the village, he says that any man who decides against joining the army would not get food (Beah 106). Also, he says that if anyone who would run away would get shot by the rebels (Beah 106). By saying this, the Lieutenant infers that if any male who does not join the military would die. So, the lieutenant is at fault for Ishmael joining the military. Joining the military is the first step to becoming a violent perpetrator. So, partially the lieutenant is at fault for Ish becoming a violent
perpetrator. The effect of drugs also contributes to Ishmael’s transformation to a violent perpetrator. Throughout the story, Ishmael is given cocaine, brown brown, marijuana, and these white capsules that the lieutenant calls “energy pills”. All of these drugs are incredibly addictive! When without these drugs, Ishmael experiences withdrawal, which causes him to perform horrific actions. Also, Ishmael and his squad would go and raid villages to attain drugs: “When we ran out of food, drugs, ammunition, and gasoline to watch war films, we raided rebel camps, in towns, villages, and in forests” (Beah 121-122). This quote displays how Ishmael and his squad would even kill people just because of their addictions. Another example of Ismael experiencing withdrawal is when he is in rehab: “The drugs from the previous nights, before we had been brought to the city, had begun to subside in my system. I walked up and down on the verandah, restless in my new environment. My head began to hurt” (Beah 137). This quote shows what happens when Ishmael does not have access to drugs. In conclusion, drug addiction contributes to Ishmael’s transformation to becoming a violent perpetrator. Finally, the feeling of revenge contributes to Ishmael’s transformation to a violent perpetrator. When Ishmael is in the city, Yele, he observes the rebels burning his family. This awful experience makes him hate the rebels and even want to kill them. This hatred towards the rebels greatens when the lieutenant says (j). The hatred towards the rebels allows Ishmael to be less aware of what he is doing. In conclusion, the feeling of revenge contributes to Ishmael’s transformation
...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.
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
...ircumstances as he did, believe that revenge is not good and it keeps on going if no one stops the process. Overall, Ishmael eventually learned that revenge does not solve anything and seeking revenge just results in a longer war sustained by the counterproductive concept of vengeance. Additionally, Ishmael learned that by constantly thinking about his culpability, he was just bringing more harm to himself and in the process was unable to create any progress in his own life. Ishmael eventually realized that merely reflecting on his actions did not do anything and to fix and prevent the problems he faced, he would have to take initiative to reach out to the people who could help. By utilizing the idea of forgiveness, Ishmael learned that he could let go of the huge mountain of stress that was bringing him down and prevented him from overcoming the effects of the war.
An interesting combination of recalled events and editorial commentary, the story is not set up like a traditional short story. One of the most interesting, and perhaps troubling, aspects of the construction of “How to Tell a True War Story” is O’Brien’s choice to create a fictional, first-person narrator who might just as well be the author himself. Because “How to Tell a True War Story” is told from a first-person perspective and O’Brien is an actual Vietnam veteran, a certain authenticity to this story is added. He, as the “expert” of war leads the reader through the story. Since O’Brien has experienced the actual war from a soldier’s point of view, he should be able to present the truth about war...
“In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness.” Pg. 71 This is very true. It follows the saying “You can’t handle the truth” because if one hears it, they think it’s a lie, or the truth being stretched. The use of imagery allows the author to express the emotion he had when he was at war.
Ishmael kills people without it being a big problem or deal. He was forced and threatened. If not then he would be killed. First, he was terrified to see people being killed. In the book, Ishmael quotes “My hand began trembling uncontrollably…” This shows that Ishmael is being aware of his surroundings and of himself. This is important because it shows how Ishmael feels before he and his
Through the various misconceptions of the children in her short story, "The Brother in Vietnam," Maxine Hong Kingston allows her reader to see just how necessary truth is to the vulnerable minds of our youth.
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...
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
Several stories into the novel, in the section, “How to tell a true war story”, O’Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that may occur when veterans tell war stories.
The truth to any war does not lie in the depths of storytelling but rather it’s embedded in every person involved. According to O’Brien, “A true war story does not depend on that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (pg. 80). Truths of any war story in my own opinion cannot be fully conveyed or explained through the use of words. Any and all war stories provide specific or certain facts about war but each of them do not and cannot allow the audience to fully grasp the tru...
Ishmael experienced many encounters in which he was on the brink of death because he was assumed to be an R.U. F soldier. For example, in chapter six, page 53, Ishmael and his companions were tied up and threaten to be drowned. This shows that trust was completely disregarded. People of the village showed no remorse as they shouted: “Drown the rebels”. An imbalance between trust and survival causes
In the short story “Chickamauga”, the author Ambrose Bierce uses a young boy to connect to his audience with what is the disillusions of war, then leads them into the actuality and brutalities of war. Bierce uses a six year old boy as his instrument to relate to his readers the spirits of men going into combat, then transferring them into the actual terrors of war.
Ishmael’s search for revenge ended when he was taken out of the front lines of the war by
A Rumor of War gives a first hand account of what really happened during wartime in Vietnam. It is told in first person as the author Philip Caputo was a young marine serving during the time of war. This book describes the time from his ambitious young ego to later when he realizes the harshness of war. He describes the story from him sitting at a desk at training to exhilarating battles. He even goes into describing the aftermath that war can place on a person. He tells this story through his own eyes and thoughts.