Compare And Contrast A Long Way Gone And Persepolis

Living in a war-ridden area can change one’s mentality towards war and violence as well as change their personality as a whole. The way a person perceives war is dependent upon how much their lives are impacted by it. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah dispels the romanticism of war in the same way that Marjane Satrapi does in her memoir, Persepolis, as they both tell their stories from the point of view of a child through major cultural change, the loss of innocence in children, and the death of family members and friends.

The culture of an area changes drastically when a war takes place in it. In normal conditions, most people have compassion and try to help the elderly and poor people, but in times of war, families are torn apart

Survival becomes everybody’s main goal. It also leads to extreme distrust. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael and a few other boys that he is travelling with arrive at a village that has been deserted by everybody except for one old man who couldn’t get away. The man is friendly to the boys and he feeds them and he tells them, “My children, this country has lost its good heart. People don’t trust each other anymore. Years ago, you would have been heartily welcomed in this village. I hope that you boys can find safety before this untrustworthiness and fear cause someone to harm you” (Beah 56). Even though Ishmael and his friends are just are group of innocent young boys, they are greatly feared by entire villages because the revolutionary front (the people who are destroying villages) is made up by groups of young boys. Fear created during war times like this can cause people to do things that they never would have done before, such as leave the weak old man behind even though they knew that he would likely die. Culture change is shown in Persepolis in things as simple as the way people dress. Before the revolution, the people of Iran could dress however they wanted to; but one

Because of the stressful times, children will learn things that they normally would not have learned until much later on in their life. In both Persepolis and A Long Way Gone, young adults witness events that are very likely to be more violent than anything that anybody who hasn’t experienced a war will see. Children who experience war are also very likely to do something that they would never normally because they have been negatively influenced by the war around them. When they get used to constantly being worried and scared of death because of the war, they will mature quickly without realizing it. “My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen” (Beah 126). These boys were once very happy and their lives were great and peaceful; but once the war started, they lost everything and were barely able to survive. They saw things that would disturb them for the remainder of their lives and they were forced to fight in the war against other young adults. The boys in Sierra Leone were no longer innocent; they were killing each other. In Persepolis, Marjane and the other children are constantly arguing or getting in fights about politics, the war, and other things that kids growing up in peaceful areas wouldn’t argue about. Marjane participates in demonstrations against her government as a child and hears gruesome stories