Throughout the history of wars, mankind has used a variety of different techniques to gain the upper hand in battle. But sadly, some countries have become so desperate that they would even use children as soldiers. Even today, children are being used as soldiers so that countries can gain the upper hand in wars. As a result of the children experiencing this, some of them have started to write books about their experience. In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmeal Beah. The book is a narration of Ishmael's experiences as a child soldier that was separated from his family and forced to fight in a war. A child soldier is a person under the age of 18 who is fighting in a war. History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned internationally because they experience …show more content…
We watched movies at night. War movies, Rambo first blood, Rambo 2 and Commando. We all want to be like Rambo. We couldn't wait to implement his techniques.” (Beah 121) Normally when children are being forced to do things that they wouldn't do, they are easily manipulated to take part in those things. Since they are being forced to take drugs that give them so much energy that they can't go to sleep, it shows how they are being manipulated. Because they are being forced to watch movies that are making them hungry for battle, it is causing the boys to become tools of war at a young age. Therefore, the use of child soldiers should be banned internationally because they are being manipulated. History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned internationally because they experience psychological and mental trauma (PTSD). Near the middle of the article “The mental health consequences of being a child soldier.” The writer is talking about how many of the child soldiers have experienced very traumatic events that have left them with the condition of PTSD. When he says that he
The war was between the rebels and the government of Sierra Leone and they both gruesomely tortured and killed their enemies. Both the rebels and the government’s troops recruited young boys to take part in the war and Ishmael was one of the many boys who was forced to become a child soldier. Ishmael has been a victim of war, but he has also been a victimizer. At unusual moments, war interrupts Ishmaels life and finds him no matter where he is. As Ishmael
The mood created in “a long way gone” can often sway from a extatic group of kids playing around their village to a lifeless, grief group of young kids who are influenced to seek revenge. Beah experienced the joys and happiness in early in his childhood with his friends prior to the civil war in Sierra Leone. The author uses a couple of rhetorical devices in this novel. These rhetorical devices used include imagery, and the author's point of view. How does the rhetorical devices on page 108 create the mood? Make sure to include details from the text to support your reasoning.
Set in 1980, in Sierra Leone, Ishmael described his life in first person. Sierra Leona, a peaceful village was soon invaded by the Revolutionary United Front(RUF), a group of rebels. Families,friends, and loved ones were torn apart as Sierra Leone was not their only target, villages from all over the country were impacted. Girls and boys such as Ishmael were forced to live on their own, going from villages to the next, not knowing what kind of fate will await them. As more and more soldiers died, the government needed people to fight for them,
Ishmael starts off the story by talking about the war that is taking place in his country and about his rap group he is participating in. He begins to explain to the reader how he learned about rap and why he loves it so much. Ishmael, his brother Junior, and Talloi take a road trip to Mattru Jong to participate in a talent show, but stop at there Grandmothers house on the way. In chapter two, Ishmael is having a nightmare, where he is pushing a wheelbarrow through a cemetery that is holding dead bodies. He wakes up from his dream and is living in his present day life, Ishmael thinks back on when he was carrying a Ak-47 killing villagers for food. He hates both thoughts. The next chapter consists of the three boys staying with their friends waiting to hear from their parents. A
Child soldiers are not always responsible for their actions. These children are often forced to fight and have little choice whether they are enlisted or not. These children had no choice but to kill other wise they would be killed themselves. Ishmael Beah was one of these child soldiers who had no choice but to go fight or die if they had left. They had lost their families and had nowhere to go. This was because they had killed their families and everyone living in their village. Overall, it becomes clear that these children were treated unfairly and were victims.
War, in and of itself, is an atrocity, but it becomes even more abhorrent when children are pulled into the conflict. Unfortunately, some military groups find children useful in the war effort. The wars these children are forced to be part of often leave wounds--both psychological and physical, but these kids can be healed, at least to an extent, and rehabilitated. Children are often used in war because it is easy and efficient to use them as compared to their adult counterparts. For one, children are easy to control, coerce, and indoctrinate.
The second part of the book takes an uncompromising look at the difficulties this entailed for the boy soldier and his peers, who for a long time resist the most determined efforts to restore their humanity, their anger at having been taken from their family. Children are meant to be protected from violence and war. They are extremely vulnerable both physically and psychologically, to abuse and misguidance. They are easily influenced by those around them because they are young and incapable of forming independent opinions. Adult soldiers at Ishmael’s base were snorting brown brown and smoking marijuana, Ishmael, as naive as any child would be, was influenced by these people and looked up to the adults as role model and leader and so he began to do it as well. “I took turns at the guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown” The job of a soldier is to fight wars, to take lives, to kill if not be killed. If these children are taught hatred
In the article, “Child Soldiers Should Be Prosecuted”, they discuss how child soldiers get forced or made to do these crimes they wouldn’t do. It states, “Children are often forced into fighting and have little choice over whether or not they enlist. After that, they are following orders of adults rather than acting of their own free will. The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and to enable them to commit acts they would not ordinarily commit.” This demonstrates that kids do get forced to join in someway and the drugs they are given enables them to do such horrifying crimes, but studies have actually shown that most joined that most had the decision to join or they weren’t forced.
Throughout Ishmael’s journey he realizes that things aren’t so black and white. Ishmael’s view of soldiers changed once he became one. When the war broke out Ishmael didn’t know what to think. Ishmael was just a young child and had no idea how things worked.
According to the article, “Child Soldiers: Victims or Predators”, it states, “More often than not children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol make the children become more compliant enabling them to commit atrocities which they never would have before.” This clearly proves how the drugs they are given, which they don’t even willingly take, have an enormous impact on their minds and stipulates the acts of murder and several other crimes. Also, in the article, “Child Soldiers Should be Prosecuted”, it states, “The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and to enable them to commit acts they would not ordinarily commit” This is just another quote stating the same evidence found in the last quote, showing that being drugged isn’t infamous but is known worldwide. Any child or grown adult’s mind is being brainwashed with things they shouldn’t be doing when taking drugs.
Thousands of children all over the world are being forced to become child soldiers. They are being forced to either become a soldier or die. They are being held against their will, and being forced to take drugs just to kill others. This needs to stop. These children don’t even know that they are fighting on the wrong side.
When hearing the term child soldiers, it brings up different images for everyone. Some may think of children as young as five years old, while others might think of teenagers in their later years. Child soldiers, as defined by the Paris Principles on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict 2007, are “a child associated with an armed force or armed group refers to any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes”.
“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill or to killed child soldiers are forced to give violent expressions to the hatreds of adults” (Olara otunnu). “A Long Way Gone” was written by Ishmael Beah and published 2007.A boy who runs away from Sierra Leone after losing his family. He is captured by the army. He was forced to do drugs, kill innocent people etc. He was sent to rehab to get him away from war.
War has affected many people, and in those countries that war has reached it has left many obstacles to overcome. Children and their parents have been affected greatly. Children that live in poverty, children that have lost a parent, lack basic necessities, are often forced to fight in wars and become child soldiers. Children are of described as someone who is under the age of eighteen, but in reality a child is a young person dependent on an adult. Child soldiers are faced with very difficult decisions that can be very traumatic to someone at that age.Child soldiers are often taken advantage of, being sexually assaulted or have been forced to kill people. They can be haunted by the decisions they make during their time as a soldier and
Firstly, it is the opinion of most persons that children who are used as child soldiers are not conscientiously answerable for their behaviour. Most times these children have no contribution on if they become a child soldier or not and once they do become a soldier they are eventually easily influenced through the constant use of drugs and alcohol. The use of these narcotics make the children become submissive thereby allowing them to commit atrocities which they would not have done before. Additionally, research would show that the majority of children who become soldiers do so without