Most people live a relatively normal day to day life even if we may have our share of mundane problems. If we are asked to describe our emotions, at the very least we can say happy or sad or fine. When we truly love something or take great pleasure in something, most of us tend to wax poetically. In contrast, there are people like Ishmael Beah whose lives started off quite normal but then it took a major wrong turn. From the tender age of ten years, Beah witnessed the horrors of war in his home country, Sierra Leone.
In Ishmael Beah's enthralling memoir "A Long Way Gone," the intricacies and conflicting viewpoints of war and terrorism, along with their profound impacts on Sierra Leone, are effectively conveyed through various literary devices, including vivid imagery, syntax, and diction. Ishmael's arrival at the village of Kamator after receiving news of his aunt's well-being from villagers is a particularly striking example of his use of sensory imagery. The evocative descriptions of "dew coming down every morning" and "the odor of soaked soil" encapsulate his longing to relish the captivating landscape and the transient moments of hopefulness and normalcy amidst the chaos of warfare (Beah 40). Nevertheless, Ishmael's use of short, fragmented sentences
The definition of 'home' is different for many people. Some people have no place to call home. To some, home is the place where family is at. To others, home is a state of mind, something completely resting on the beliefs or thoughts of the individual. The general idea of home is a place of safety and stability.
There are many reasons English teachers should select material to teach important concepts. English is a much more loosely structured class than Calculus or Physics, so there is a great deal of controversy when choosing books for students. While some titles can hold topics that resemble taboos, the experiences of the protagonists in stories of violence, poverty, and extreme struggle can encourage growth of students as learners, thinkers, and human beings. Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone is appropriate for the Sterling High School English IV curriculum because it contains honest and detailed imagery, and because it sparks a reader’s awareness of tragedies that are being forced upon their peers across the globe.
Often referred to as “child soldiers,” these boys and girls suffer extensive forms of exploitation and abuse that are not fully captured by that term”
Dismissal of a Childhood More than 250,000 children have been captured and forced into a cruel war. (“Child Soldiers”). Unfortunately, the ban on child soldiers has not yet reached worldwide. There are more than multiple reasons why children should not be linked to war. The thoughts, actions, and ideas that are implanted into child soldiers' brains can be more than harmful to them for the rest of their lives.
In the article, “CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE GLOBAL AGENDA” it says, “Children need be the victims of war only if there is no will to prevent it.” This helps show how children should not be involved in war in the first place. They aren’t the ones who have started the war. It isn’t their fault in the first place so why are people punishing the children for their involvement when it wasn’t their fault. They expect the kids to serve time or to get a death sentence when it was adults like them who brought them into this mess.
The Problem of Child Soldiers “Since 2010, there’s been a 34% rise in the number of children living in conflict-affected areas, plus a staggering 170% rise in the number of reported grave violations committed against children in conflict.”(“Child Soldiers: Childhood's End”). This quote relates to my thesis statement because it shows the percentage of child soldiers that are in danger at a very young age and the rate of children in danger is still on the rise. Child Soldiers are young children that are put into war zones and danger zones at a very young age and have no control over what is going on. In A Long Way Gone the children got brained wash but doing drugs and not knowing they were, and being killed at too young of age by also being introduced to violence at too young of an age.
Imagine your childhood, sweet, cute and simple. This isn 't the case for everyone. Right now there are child soldiers who are making memories, but they aren 't good. They 're violent and damaging, but there is nothing they can do about it. These children are being forced by commanders to fight in war, they are seeing things that children should never have to see, and they 're being put under drugs and can 't think clearly.
Child Soldiers An organization that addresses the issue of child soldiers is named “War Child”. Based in the United Kingdom, War Child provides life-changing support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war. This includes child soldiers, in addition to other children whose lives have been forever changed by war. A general overview of War Child’s organization highlights key endeavors such as protecting, educating and advocating for those children. War Child provides quite a few services to address the issue of child soldiers.
To begin, some will say that child soldiers should be prosecuted because they have caused harm to others, but rehabilitation should be the aim because of the horrors they have seen. Children have seen blood, bruises, bones, and dead bodies, haphazardly strewn freely among the battlefield--dead. They have seen men trying to murder each other right before their very eyes, and are aghast after what they have seen. What does this do to the minds of these innocent children who haven’t yet learned to be civil? The children are now scarred, and need to learn to cope with the violence they have been influenced by.
Child soldiers are a new international problem but an old situation. Child combatants are fighting in today’s wars, they are used by many types of groups from insurgencies to military forces. It was common for the armies of the world to recruit children into their ranks. This practice was abandoned when nations started to use professional armies instead of citizens to fight their wars. It has shifted to armed groups and recruitment of children.
Have you ever seen a movie or documentary about children as young as five in places like Somalia, Chad, or Myanmar, killing innocent people, terrorizing, or even raping young girls? This issue may have blown past your head seeing it before or even hearing it for the first time right now. You may not believe this could actually be true. But you need to understand how very controversial this issue can be. After reading this paper, you will realize how child soldiers are perpetrators and shouldn’t be given amnesty for simply the reasons of, these kids have ruined lives, killed, raped innocent people who have done nothing wrong.
Also, in a interview on The Hour by former child soldier Ishmael Beah he says, “I will never be able to forget any of what happened to me... I still have nightmares, I still have flashbacks, but I know I’m not there I’m here and this healing still continues.” Beah talks about how the experience of being in war as a child is unforgettable in a negative way. He says he still has nightmares and flashbacks and constantly reminds himself that it is over and he is not in war anymore and therefore he continues to heal. If child soldiers are prosecuted, though, and thrown into jail, they have no happy reality to return back
Assignment page Video Where many children all over the world merrily and freely live under the protection of the law, for others, this is a distant reality, they live in a world where they’re battling poverty, stripped of their childhood and basic human rights are expunged, they’re the innocent victims of conflict, and war is made to seem their one and only duty, not to mention that these are children no more than 10 years of age. They are put into a situation where it’s to kill or be killed. The United Nations defines a child soldier as, “Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity.” Since the past 15 years, child soldiers are being used in almost every region of the world. Unlike most children, who go to school, they’re abducted from their families and forced into becoming a child soldier, where living conditions are beyond imaginable.
