A Long Way Gone Essay

An estimated 300,000 children are forced to become soldiers every day all around the world and will be forced to grow up in a war environment. Many teens in African countries have been fighting in the war since the 90s. These children were forced to fight in the war to survive not being killed by a higher power. An estimated 40% of child soldiers are active in Africa. There is a big risk involved with a post-conflict society. Many children live in an environment that is constantly under threat of conflict. Child soldiers are an ongoing problem because children should not be forced to kill and have their innocence stripped from them. This issue requires citizens to take action because children should not be forced to fight in a war that they did not

If they refused to join the boys would have been shot because they would have been seen as fighting against the rebels. Subsequently, at this point the issue is that these children are being stripped of their innocence as they are forced to kill.In the book A long Way Gone, Memoirs of a boy soldier, by Ishmael Beah has a very violent mindset. “We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity, I felt no pity for anyone.”It is important to show that over two years of fighting in the war Ishmael did not feel bad and would kill anyone he had to to survive,

Additionally, there are some child soldiers who joined the war voluntarily. Many children join to have an identity or feel apart of something.in the article Understanding the Recruitment of Child Soldiers in Africa by Anne-Lynn Dudenhoefer, it states “Pull factors include – paradoxically – seeking security in fighting forces, provision of food, a sense of belonging and ideology or group identity,” this shows that some children join the war to feel as if they are apart of a community fighting for a common cause