When Charley joined the First Minnesota Volunteers he along with many others wanted to help support his country during war. Everyone from the Union and the Confederacy thought that the war would be over soon but sadly they were wrong. The war that Charley had just joined would be bloodiest American war yet. Charley found out in this book that war changes people and that it is often not what people make it out to be.
In this story, the author exposes the idea of how war can significantly
Title: A Long Way Gone Author: Ishmael Beah Page range: 16 Entry #1: “We must strive to be like the moon” In this quote Ishmael Beah, the narrator, is speaking from Khalilou’s house (Ishmael’s friend) in Mattru Jong. Ishmael and his brother Junior were just returning before the rebels attacked their town, Mogbwemo.
The book is set among soldiers fighting on the front line. One of the main focuses is the crippling effect the war has on soldiers. The brutality
Bertrand Russell once said, “War doesn’t determine who’s right, only who’s left.” The Vietnam War was one in particular where soldiers often struggled with who the enemy was. War is too often thought of as something to be won, but this novel reveals it is simply something to be survived, and the shell of a person that is left will not be the same one that walked into battle. That is a jarring reality very prominent in Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. It is a lesson soldier Richard Perry learns all too well on his journey from innocent young boy to Vietnam veteran.
The book describes perfectly how soldiers and civilians struggle during the war, both soldiers and civilians struggle with hunger, fear of the unknown, fear of not being reunited with your loved ones. War destroys way more than it fixes, it impacts generations after generations for reasons that seem to be driven by money and power at the expense of the little
The Moon is Down is presented as a tale of invasion and conquest that narrates the story of a village being “friendly attacked” by military forces during the time of World War I. Steinbeck, the author of the novel, describes each character in a very particular way. Also, he classifies them into two sides: invaders and townspeople. Even though there were significant differences among the townspeople they all were connected by the same feeling which was the desire of taking control of the situation. For instance, Joseph plays an important role within the story as he is most of the time present in the conversations. He seems to have an obsession with putting everything in its place and worrying about the chairs right orientation.
Present throughout the book is the theme of disillusionment. In the school, they’ve been told by their schoolmasters and parents that unless they join the war, they would remain cowards. They see propaganda after propaganda, all alluding towards the glory of battle and warfare. Out on the front, they realize that nothing was further from the truth. Their dreams of being heroes shattered, like when they compare themselves to the soldier on a poster in chapter 7.
In his book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah retells the very intense and traumatic events of being forced into the Sierra Leone civil war at such a young age. As he wanders through the African wilderness, trying to escape the Rebels, Beah explains old memories of his past to the readers. These memories mostly consist of his family and old adages he was told by them. One of these adages is about the moon, which will act as comfort for Beah as he searches for his family. Another thing that comforts as well as saves Beah throughout his journey is music.
and you aren’t the hero and all you want to do is whimper and wait” (The Ghost Soldiers, 200). The relationships of soldiers are somewhat depressing. They are forced into a platoon, with men they have never met, and told to trust them with their lives.
