Innocence-(n.) lack of experience with the world and with the bad things that happen in life(“Innocence”). All children consider to be innocent for at least part of their lives if not all their childhood. In order to lose your innocence most people believe it's the first time they have sex or when a child realizes that Santa Claus and the tooth fairy aren’t real. In Ishmael’s case he lost it an entirely different way. He was faced with a choice to take on the rebels by himself and mostly likely be killed or join the army and become a child soldier. He choose to join the army which eventually made him lose his innocence. Many situations caused him to when Gasemu took him to see his family, when his music cassettes were burned, and when he first killed someone.
Ishmael was looking for his family and by chance ran into a man from his old town named Gasemu who was currently in the
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One day the lieutenant and all the soldiers brought in two dead bodies, a man and a young boy. They decided to leave and were shot by rebels in a clearing when they left. The lieutenant explained all of the terrible things the rebels have been doing to civilians. He gave them a choice to leave or join them. He put it as “ They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them (Beah 108)”. His trying to convince them to fight which worked. They gave the kids new clothes and burned their old ones.“ As I was putting on my new army shorts, a soldier took my old pants and threw them into a blazing fire, but the cassette had already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away(Beah 110)”. The tapes were part of his childhood back when he was performing and walking to school with his brother and friends. The cassettes were his happy place, and brought back memories and his family. Now he has nothing and everything is about to