My name is Pai Harris; I was born in West Africa, Liberia. And I have a story to tell. This story is some of my memories from my childhood. All the memories from my early childhood are still vivid. One of my earliest memories, and the most horrifying one, was the civil war that took place in West Africa when I was a child. A war that destroyed the country left us homeless and with a painful scar in the heart of the people that experienced it. Even though I was about seven and the half, I remember seeing people being killed in front of me and male children who were about eight and above being ripped from the arms of their parents so that they could join the war. Parents were crying here and there wondering where their children were and if …show more content…
People who came from different lands to trade and were not citizens were killed because they spoke different languages. For many days my family walked from one town to another, looking for safe place for us to hide. We would often have no food or pure water to drink. We ate leftovers that people didn’t eat and drink from a little lake that was full of dead bodies, without us knowing that the water was polluted. My mother kept saying she didn’t care if she ate or drank; all that mattered was the safety and health of the children. Most days we would walk until we found food and drink, and when night came we slept by the road side regardless the condition of the road. My mother would look at her feet and cry because they were covered with blisters from walking for many days. For weeks our lives hung in the balance. We would be petrified whenever we heard a gunshots or someone screaming, worried that we could next. We saw gruesome acts where we couldn’t believe our own eyes, such as soldiers killing the young children in front of us if they found out that the parents were hiding things such as weapon, or people who didn’t belongs.. What made it even more shocking was that they did it in front of the parents of those children that they …show more content…
We sometimes try to push the past into the back of our mind and pretend that it doesn’t exist, but those memories are ultimately unforgettable and a part of us that we can’t change. When I look back on those memories, it almost feels like I’m reliving them again. I can still hear the noise of people screaming and yelling for their loved ones, being killed, or being taken against their will. Those I saw lost, whether killed or kidnapped, were gone forever. When you see such a thing in large numbers, it can be very difficult to process. There sometimes comes a time in our life when we face great pains and sorrows; a time where we may give up our beliefs and say there is no life for a better tomorrow. God blesses us with a mind in which we keep all of our memories, ones that are good and ones that are painful. We sometimes try to enjoy the good memories and keep the painful one in the back of our suppressed. Even though as painful and hurtful my memories is not reflected upon, there is nothing that we can do to actually change it or make it go away. All that is really left for us to do is to accept it and move on with our life. We cannot change the past or make the memories of my past any better; we can just try to use them to help appreciate the present circumstances more. I try to use my memories in a positive way by striving to live a better life, and live my dream such as being a actor some day in Hollywood and be thankful that I had
Recalling painful memories makes us mentally stronger in a way. If one could go through such terrible hardships, then it would be easier to endure other obstacles. Take Elie Wiesel for example, a survivor of one of the most devastating period of history, the Holocaust. During the World War ll, the Jewish population were prosecuted by the Nazis because of their beliefs.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how
Lawren Harris is an iconic Canadian painter. Best known for being a member of the group of seven, his landscape paintings are still admired by millions of people today. Harris was born on the 23rd of October, 1885 in Brantford, Ontario. His parents were Thomas and Anna Harris and he was born into a wealthy family. He attended St. Andrew’s College and then went on to study art in Berlin. He married Beatrice Phillips in 1910 and they had three children together. Harris divorced Beatrice and married Bess Housser in 1934. He became friends with J.E.H MacDonald in 1911 and together they formed the Group of Seven in the early 1920’s. Harris died on the 27th of January, 1970 at the age of 84.
Sierra Leone has been involved in a humungous amount of absurd human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. This detailed paper on the book, A Long Way Gone, set in Sierra Leone, will create interest by summarizing the memoir through descriptive examples and text on symbolism and imagery. The author of this memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is Ishmael Beah, it's difficult to believe that this is a true and harsh story. You will be learning about Ishmael's resilience and the horrible struggles he faced as a child soldier, while somehow continuing to have hope. Ishmael Beah, 12 at the beginning of this memoir, unexpectedly gets recruited into a time consuming war over blood diamonds, against the rebels as a young child. Ishmael is at a loss, since with his own eyes he viewed not only his loving family, but his whole village as it was horrifically torn down by the dangerous rebels. Ishmael is not physically lonely during the book, but he is emotionally
The irony of the whole situation is that you cannot ever forget the past you just really learn how to deal with it. You learn what was then is not what is now and you learned to move on with life know that from time to time you will have to deal with flashbacks of the past. “In my head my life was normal,” (126). But in his reality he knew there was something wrong.
On March 23rd, 1991, a civil war started between the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). This war had an enormous impact on everyone in and around the country, especially young civilian boys who were taken from their families and homes to become child soldiers. One of these former government soldiers is Ishmael Beah, who was brought into this battle between powers at only 13 years old. Throughout his lifetime, he has had to confront many challenges and conflicts, most of which can be found in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” After reading his memoir, I have gained much knowledge on the topic of both the Sierra Leone Civil War and the issue of children becoming soldiers. The themes of this
For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of
I am Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa. When I was eleven, I was kidnapped from my home in Eboe, which is located in Africa, along with my sister. Soon after being kidnapped I was separated from my sister. In the early parts of my slavery I was in Africa. I was moved about Africa I was brought to a house in which my sister was in. I did not see her for long for I was sold again. After I was sold I was never to see her again.
I am Nkem. I am fourteen years old. I come from Oyo, one of four states inland near the gulf of Guinea. Oyo is the most successful of all four kingdoms because of its thriving forests and because we didn’t have the tsetse fly or any other diseases so we were able to breed horses. We had many farmlands with slave labor and we had many slaves which were traded to the Europeans for guns, clothes, and metal goods. I lived with my mother, father, and my younger brother. This is the story of how I got kidnapped, taken away from my family, was brought to Mississippi to have everything changed completely and how I became Charlotte.
Speaking of that, there have been numerous cases of protestors being denied entrance or escorted out of the event for no good reason
Past experiences are great to learn from and occasionally look back on, but dwelling in the past can often lead to regret and the inability to move forward. It is not possible to live life to the
I don’t remember much of my childhood. It’s been said that when you experience trauma, your brain has a defense mechanism to help you forget it ever happened. This is both helpful and hurtful in terms of carrying on. I don’t remember much of my mother before her alcoholism began to control her. I wish I could remember what she was like; I’ve been told she was a wonderful mother, though it’s very hard for me to believe that now.
Arway is a seven-year-old student who has just immigrated to the United States from Monrovia, Liberia with her family. She comes from one of the most populated cities in Liberia. In the 1800s, freed African American slaves settled in Liberia via the American Colonization Society. Friction occurred between the African Americans and the indigenous Liberians which turned into two brutal civil wars that not only resulted in numerous deaths, but also severely devastated the Liberian economy. Even though Arway was born after the second civil war ended, her family has experienced the war and its devastating effects that may have affected their choice to emigrate.
After a while, things started to die down and I began to feel better about myself. We all had false papers; my name was Georges Guerin, so we could still get food and I had a job. My mom’s fate is unknown, I just wish that my parents would be safe from harm. One day after I got back from my job, I was startled to discover that my sisters did not come home. They usually got home before me. It was only later that I got word that they too had been discovered and arrested. Now I wish for the fate of all of my family as I am the only one still
Years have passed, my teenage years, even up until present, as an adult, the past seems to creep up from deep inside my soul to the surface on every January and the reflection of that memory makes my heart ache. The questions of why run through