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Psychological effects of war on soldiers
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A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life. In the A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a twelve-year-old explains how he used to go on a swim with his friends and his love for rap music and hip-hop dance. When Ishmael and his friends went to visit Mattru Jong, they visited Ishmael's grandparents in Kabati. While staying at the Mattru Jong, they recieved a terrifying news that Mogbwemo was attacked. When messengers warn the townspeople several times that Mattru Jong is going to be attacked, the townspeople fled and hide until time has passed and everyone returned to their daily life. Until, the rebels actually arrive and people run away from the rebels from more than an hour until the rebels stop chasing them. Ishmael, Junior, Ishmael’s brother, and their friends kept walking for days and began to be very hungry. The only way to get was to scavenge cassava and fruit. They decided to reenter to Mattru Jong to get their hidden money. Even though there are rebels lingering in Mattru Jong, the boys manage to get their hidden money and escape except for one boy who alerted the guards. But, they found out that the marketplace has stopped selling food. Hungry for some food, the boys return to Mattru Jong again. However, they were ambushed by three rebels and Ishmael and Junior were chosen to be killed in line. Gunshots were heard from the village and ... ... middle of paper ... ...r family or to strangers. The reason why I choose theft because money was an issue for us children and the economy in the Philippines is very hard than in the U.S. We don't even have enough money to buy ourselves some soft drinks or any nice luxury items. Pleading and stealing is the only way for us to get it, it was like a survival. We don't even have a luxury toys since we mostly play mud outside and use cans as part of the game we invent. By the time I moved here in the U.S., I knew that I feel out of place and feel like I am unneeded here. Sometimes, I wish that I would have stayed in the Philippines because that place became my home just like Ishmael. But, I grew the liking here in the U.S. and I plan to make this country part of my home. Works Cited Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
The title A Long Way Gone tells me that the story follows the life of a young boy who had encountered war first hand. As stated in the title, this is a memoir written by the soldier in the book. Since this is
“Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to
In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the wilderness, is forced to face many physical and psychological dangers. By thirteen, he has been picked up by the government army, and is conditioned to fight in the war by being provided with as many drugs as he could consume (cocaine and marijuana), rudimentary training, and an AK-47. In the next two years, Beah goes on a mind-bending killing spree to avenge the death of his dear ones. At sixteen, he was picked up by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at the rehabilitation center, he learns to forgive himself and to regain his humanity.
This psychological memoir is written from the eyes of Ishmael Beah and it describes his life through the war and through his recovery. War is one of the most horrific things that could ever happen to anyone. Unwilling young boy soldiers, innocent mothers and children are all affected. In most instances, the media or government does not show the horrific parts of war, instead they focus on the good things that happen to make the people happy and not cause political issues. In his book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah dispels the romanticism around war through the loss of childhood innocence, the long road of emotional recovery and the mental and physical effects of war.
...ploys children rather than men. He is subjected to the violence of the war for more than three years before he is finally rescued by an organization dedicated to rehabilitating child soldiers. Once Ishmael discovers happiness, affection, and a will to survive, he regains what hope he had lost. No matter the circumstances concerning it, hope has always been the trigger for events in Ishmael’s life, thus making hope a theme present throughout the entirety of A Long Way Gone. Hope allows Ishmael to bounce back from the tragic events that marked his teenage years and discover a will to survive.
Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front is based on World War I; it portrays themes involving suffering, comradeship, chance and dehumanization. The novel is narrated by Paul, a young soldier in the German military, who fights on the western front during The Great War. Like many German soldiers, Paul and his fellow friends join the war after listening to the patriotic language of the older generation and particularly Kantorek, a high school history teacher. After being exposed to unbelievable scenes on the front, Paul and his fellow friends realize that war is not as glorifying and heroic as the older generation has made it sound. Paul and his co-soldiers continuously see horrors of war leading them to become hardened, robot-like objects with one goal: the will to survive.
Ishmael’s search for revenge ended when he was taken out of the front lines of the war by
Ishmael Beah had a broken family, with divorced parents, living with his younger brother, Ibrahim, his older brother, Junior, along with his mother, and had slim to none communication with his father due to his stepmom. “I had not seen him for a while, as another stepmom had destroyed our relationship.” (10) Before gaining knowledge of any type of war approaching his village, Ishmael, Junior, and they’re mutual friend Talloi left town on a voyage to participate in a talent show in the town of Mattru Jong, where the boys would perform a dance routine set to a track of American rap songs they obtained on a cassette. Once they discovered that their village had been under attack by rebels, who often carve the initials ‘RUF’, which stood for Revolutionary United Front, they quickly scurried back to their village in hopes of coming in contact with their family members. Talloi exclaimed, “We must go back and see if we can find our families before it is too late.” Unfortunately the boys were too late, and their families had fled in attempts to survive. Ishmael, and Junior were accompanied with four close friends whose bond...
A long way gone is the factual story of Ishmael Beah who turn out to be an unenthusiastic boy warrior throughout a civil warfare in Sierra Leone. In Chapter 1, at twelve years of age, January 1993 Beah’s town is attacked while he is gone performing in a rap group with accomplice’s. Since they planned to come back the following day, they didn’t farewell or communicate with anyone wherever they were going, little they knew that they will certainly not come back to their families. It all started when Gibrilla and Kaloko came home early after school and they brought with them grief-stricken update for the eruption of warfare at the mining area. Amongst the mix-up, viciousness and vagueness of the warfare, Ishmael, Junior and his friends roam from settlem...
Did you know that every day several hundreds of people are forced out of their home causing them to become a refugee? The universal refugee experience of fleeing and finding a home is difficult since the refugee doesn’t know or understand the language that well and can sometimes be viewed as an outsider. According to the article, “Children at War” by Arthur Brice, Amela Kamenica a teen refugee is forced out of her home due to the war near her hometown. In the novel, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, the main character, Ha is treated like an outcast since she doesn’t know the American traditions and ways. Ha is a ten-year old girl, who has to flee Vietnam because of the war between North and South Vietnam. It is dangerous and unsafe
The Forgotten Soldier is not a book concerning the tactics and strategy of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. Nor does it analyze Nazi ideology and philosophy. Instead, it describes the life of a typical teenage German soldier on the Eastern Front. And through this examined life, the reader receives a first hand account of the atrocious nature of war. Sajer's book portrays the reality of combat in relation to the human physical, psychological, and physiological condition.
When the war first came into Beah’s life, it was with the sudden force of a tornado. Beah had been living in Mattru Jong without worry. He enjoyed doing things normal 12 year olds should: playing with friends, making mischief and dancing to hip hop. When rebels attacked the mining areas close to the village, havoc broke loose. Beah and his brother were separated from their family and forced to run away the village out of fear. They traveled in a small group of 6 boys for a whole year, spending each day walking through brush to find the next abandoned village in hopes of a meal. The boys were left alone with their minds, forced to cope with tragedy on their own. They still lived in fear, keeping a sharp lookout for wandering rebels and narrowly avoiding conflict with civilians who mistook them for rebels. The journey was grueling and dangerous. All of them came close to death many times. However, they couldn’t run forever.
In Joseph Plumb Martin’s account of his experiences in the Revolutionary War he offers unique insight into the perspective of a regular soldier, which differs from the views of generals and leaders such as popular characters like George Washington. Martin’s narrative is an asset to historical scholarship as a primary source that gives an in-depth look at how life in the army was for many young men during the War for Independence. He described the tremendous suffering he experienced like starvation and privation. He did not shy away from describing his criticism of the government who he believes did not adequately care for the soldiers during and after the war. While he may be biased because of his personal involvement as a soldier, he seems to relate accounts that are plausible without embellishment or self-aggrandizement. Overall, “A Narrative of A Revolutionary Soldier” is a rich source of information providing an overview of military experience during the war.
The Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah remarked itself as a best selling child soldier book ever written.The book gets more interesting and induce reader’s curiosity ,when they question about incidence that occur during the war.In A Long Way Gone memoir, the author reveal how vital was his actions to his survival. When he was 12 years old Beah’s village was attacked by rebel forces. Ishmael is separated from his family and eventually forced to serve as a child soldier for the Sierra Leone Military.When UNICEF intervenes, Beah is rehabilitated . However Beah has already experiences the bloodshed and violence of war at that time.Then eventually, becomes a spokesperson against using children as soldiers. Through the painful experience , he did many cruel thing that he was never capable of doing before the war for the sake of survival.
Singer, P.W. “Children at War.” Military History 24.6 (2007): 1-5. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.