Demobilize Underage Soldiers
War is the graveyard of innocence for boys who become men through the loss of humanity. The book “Fallen Angels,” by Walter Dean Myers, is a story about Richard Perry, a young man who mistakenly joins the Vietnam War to avoid the shame of not going to college. As the book goes on Perry discovers his mistake and in the process, not only loses his innocence, but also his humanity. Wars will always be the dark parts of our history and no war is devoid of horrors that can strip anyone of everything they are, and in war soldiers must use coping mechanisms to deal with these very apparent horrors.
This literary piece “The Making and Unmaking of a child soldier” by Ishmael Beah, unravels aspects of the world often looked over. The book opens an eye on how child soldiers are used as spawn for civil wars for ruthless warlords over drug empires in Sierra Leone. Children are forced to become soldiers to serve for military and save their country, Sierra Leone. Child soldiers are also forced to work and there are many different jobs which are given to child soldiers.
Also, according to the Invisible Children Association, “...child soldiers are often forced into fighting through false promises. They are also forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol.” This shows how they are forced and they think what they are doing is okay because they are brainwashed. These children are being misled and sometimes threatened to commit horrible acts, that they wouldn’t do if they knew what was happening. But these children were never taught what is right and wrong.
The Effects On Child Soldiers In the book, A Long Way Gone, it said, “‘Bullet wounds,’ I casually replied” (Beah 154). In the book, Beah is so mentally changed that getting shot is not even a big deal to him anymore. Most child soldiers just like him have been desensitized to these kinds of problems. Using children in war can cause them a countless amount of mental and physical pain as Beah describes in his book
How would you feel if you were recruited as a soldier during war? Since 2001, the participation of child soldiers has been reported in 21 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world. The importance of this is portrayed in Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone. The author believes that innocent kids should not be selected to fight as soldiers, lose their innocence killing people, witnessing violent scenes and suffer because of war.
During the Battle of the Bulge, soldiers fought in “grueling physical and psychological conditions” that led to persistent struggles after the war with remembering these conditions (Intro: Battle of the Bulge). Many veterans refer to the immediate effects of returning as the “shock of peace” (Childers). However, despite these widespread mental health problems, there were few psychiatrists to treat these soldiers as well as a “cultural ethos” that discouraged discussing emotions, especially among men (Childers). When soldiers returned home, they often had difficulty with finances.
On Saturday, March 23 the Sierra Leone army came under attack from rebel forces from within the country called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a ruthless group of soldiers led by a former army Sierra Leone corporal, Foday Sankoh. They would do anything to gain control of the country including the enlistment of child soldiers, and they had the upper hand until the army followed their strategy and drafted children themselves (Fyfe and Davidson). Many of the child soldiers suffered a lot of physical and psychological trauma from the war including a young boy named Ishmael Beah. In A Long Way Gone, Beah’s recounting of his experiences in the war, portrays the loss of innocence and hope in child soldiers due to the effects of war.
A “runaway” or a “war hero?” The psychology of a confused and depressed young man was shown and repeated. Throughout the book, “psychology of the soldier” was a topic O’Brien examined deeply by telling his memories, so this brought up the question “whether war is moral or
The article of “Children on the Battlefield” by MArcie Schwartz is about what the boys in the military experienced. During the Civil War,young boys wanted to serve in the military to find adventure. Since there was an age limit of 18,many young boys had to lie about their ages or run away and sign with a fake name so their parents won’t find them. Many school teachers and fathers would sometimes let the children join the army. When a person signs up for the army,they have to play a role such as a musician,soldier,or powder boy.
Annotated Bibliography Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone. N.p., n.d. PDF file. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a book that retells his own experiences as a child soldier.
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
An unhealthy obsession with guns, being drugged to make killings seem normal, and being undoubtedly loyal to commanders is only part of what a child soldier is. Child soldiers can be dangerous and make up many armies in war-torn countries. In much of the world, usually in unstable countries, when conflict breaks out, children can quickly be swept up and put on the front lines to fight. Children may carry ten-pound guns and use bullets twice the size of their fingers. Some children are old enough to understand what they are doing, and others have no idea.
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.
Soldiers train rigorously, preparing for the departure of war. They sacrifice all that they have to fight for their country. As they return after the war, they are left with painful experiences and traumatizing memories, suffering from their inevitable conditions. However, the spouse, families and children back at home are suffering even more than soldiers.
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