Compare/Contrast Essay: Child Soldiers

1319 Words3 Pages

Most would agree that murdering somebody before even being old enough to purchase a firearm is ridiculous, but the protagonists in both A Long Way Gone and All Quiet on the Western Front had to just that without even blinking an eye. Unfortunately, child soldiers have existed for many generations, and there is not much being done to stop it from happening. War has existed for centuries, but the use of children has proven to cause serious mental and physical illnesses that they will not recover from for the rest of their often shortened lives. Paul Baumer from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and Ishmael Beah from his memoir A Long Way Gone are forced to grow up and act much older and much more mature than they actually are as a …show more content…

Even though having Ismael fight is considered to be a war crime, he is not aware of this, and it causes him to be a forced child soldier. If he would have chosen to not become one, he would most likely been killed by the rebels. He is not alone however; it is estimated that 25 sovereign states use child soldiers in combat, and it is difficult for the United Nations to control the situations (Flock). Ishmael is forced to watch people he cares about die every day, including children younger than he. Once it is realized that there are child soldiers there was attempt to get them out and Ishmael was one of the lucky ones to get out sooner than his comrades. Unfortunately, many of the soldiers have gone through so much that they have mental illnesses, and it is difficult to return them to their old innocent selves. This pertains particularly to Ishmael, but Paul sees a similar situation happening. There are new recruits continuously arriving in Paul’s group, and they do not last long. Most are younger than he, and many of them die quickly due to a lack of training, and others go insane, which has various

Show More
Related

  • A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

    1691 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, narrates the story of Ishmael’s life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leonean civil war. Ishmael chronicles his journey from a scared, adrift child who lost his family in the war to a brutal child soldier who mercilessly killed many individuals to a guilt stricken rehabilitated teen who slowly learns to overcome his remorse from his past actions. Ishmael’s life as a child soldier first started when the Sierra Leonean army took him and his friends with them to the village, Yele, occupied by army officials and seemingly safe from the rebels. Unfortunately, within a few weeks of their stay, the rebels attacked Yele, and Ishmael and his friends decided to make the choice of becoming a child soldier in order to sustain their slim chances of staying alive. Ishmael’s interaction with violence was very different as a child soldier compared to as a civilian: while he witnessed violent actions before, as a child soldier he was committing them. As his life as a soldier demanded more violence from him, Ishmael sank deeper into the process of dehumanization with his main driving point being the revenge that he sought from the rebels for the deaths of his family and friends. After a few months as a child soldier, Ishmael was brought to the Benin home by UNICEF officials who hoped to rehabilitate the completely dehumanized child soldiers. With the help of Esther, a compassionate nurse, and other staff members in the center, Ishmael was able to ultimately reverse the effects of the war on him. By forgiving himself and the rebels who took away his close ones from him, Ishmael was able to restore his emotion of empathy and become rehabilitated.

    Read More

  • Ishmael Beah's Recovery

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is hard to remain innocent during a time of war. Ishmael was an innocent 12 year old boy when the war broke out and the RUF took over his village. He was chased and shot at by the RUF. As a young boy he had to endure seeing people gunned down in front of him and murdered in the most gruesome ways as illustrated by the author when he said, “I had seen heads cut off by machetes, smashed by cement bricks, and rivers filled with so much blood that the water ceased flowing.”

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Quotes

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael survives and describes his journey while at war. Ishmael was a 13 year old who is forced to become a child soldier. He struggles through a variety of problems. In his journey, he was separated from his family and mostly running for his life. Later on, he has no problem killing people and picking up his gun. In fact, anyone can be evil at any certain time with kids changing, getting drugged, and going back to war.

    Read More

  • The Human Condition In Ishmael's A Long Way Gone

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the war, there were two prevalent groups. These were the army and the rebels, both of which offered Ishmael a questionable future. As we know, Ishmael ended up joining the army. About his experience in the army, Ishmael says “I had my gun now, and as the corporal always said “This gun is your source of power in these times.It will protect you and provide you all you need, if you know how to use it well.”” (p.124). This type of thinking is in short, self-destructive to Ishmael. It would mean that he would either end up dead during the war, or if he was to survive, it would be very unlikely for him to be rehabilitated because he had been so reliant on his gun during the war. In addition to this, it would leave Ishmael in a precarious state when the war ended if he had not been rehabilitated, since the only thing he knew to do for years was to kill. However, since he was able to be rehabilitated, he was able to conform to society once more. This, unfortunately, could have been prompted once again near the end of the book when history repeats itself when the AFRC took over Sierra Leone. “The entire nation crumbled into a state of lawlessness. I hated what was happening. I couldn’t return to my previous live.”. Once again, war comes knocking on Ishmael’s front door, and this time around Ishmael knows what war is like and what he is going to experience again. Ishmael was

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah Character Analysis

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    After going through rehabilitation for being traumatized by war, he had gone to a United Nations’ conference to share his thoughts about children in war. Ishmael comments, “I began by saying, “I am from Sierra Leone, and the problem that is affecting us children is the war that forces us to run away from our homes, lose our families, and aimlessly roam the forests” (Beah 199). By the way Ishmael is able to logically explain his thoughts to others shows how he had matured, otherwise an immature person would have not had the opportunity to do such a thing. As the time got closer to the day that Ishmael would be released from the rehabilitation center to live with his uncle and his family, he did a lot of thinking about how he would be able to live with an actual family again and control his now usual distancing personality (Beah 179). Ishmael had gotten used to taking care of himself, and the way he is concerned about being with his family shows how he had grown as a person and matured through his experiences in a way. Other boys would take longer to be able to be released from the rehabilitation center, or if they did get released then they would not think as far as how to deal with a family again. Ishmael had matured towards the end of his story through his experiences and the process of being in the rehabilitation

    Read More

  • Ishmael Character Analysis

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Ishmael’s life as a boy soldier slowly came to an end, these changes were the hardest to accept. He was given all knew clothes, lots of help, and was practically given his life back. A normal person would be happy to accept that, but Ishmael wasn’t exactly a normal person. His life was dedicated to being a boy soldier, and through that he develops a very violent mindset. When he is taken away from this atmosphere, he resorts to violence and has extreme drug withdrawal. ALong with that, he had severe migraines and wanted to be fighting for his country. Many other soldiers looked up to him for his dedication and contribution. Even though all they wanted to do was help him, he just wanted to fight.

    Read More

  • Globalization Increases Child Soldiery

    2629 Words  | 6 Pages

    As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any kind of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than simply a child with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18, being used as soldiers in 33 conflicts currently, and this figure continues to rise (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Similarly, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight ...

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Essay

    1598 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sometimes they had no choice but to join the military to keep themselves alive. Ishmael’s life was finally changed by some good UNICEF people. He finally learned to forgive and gained back his humanity. There are few types of brainwashing method used in the military to keep the child soldiers energetic and injecting hate in them. While people believe that military people are the authorities, the Sierra Leone military used drugs, movies, and speech to keep the soldiers

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers: Kill or Be Killed

    1798 Words  | 4 Pages

    “This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s” (Beah). Innocent, vulnerable, and intimidated. These words describe the more than 300,000 children in nations throughout the world coerced into combat. As young as age seven, boys and girls deemed child soldiers participate in armed conflict, risking their lives and killing more innocent others. While many individuals recollect their childhood playing games and running freely, these children will remember “playing” with guns and running for their lives. Many children today spend time playing video games like Modern Warfare, but for some children, it is not a game, it is reality. Although slavery was abolished nearly 150 years ago, the act of forcing a child into a military position is considered slavery and is a continuously growing trend even today despite legal documents prohibiting the use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict. Being a child soldier does not merely consist of first hand fighting but also work as spies, messengers, and sex slaves which explains why nearly 30 percent of all child soldiers are girls. While the use and exploitation of these young boys and girls often goes unnoticed by most of the world, for those who have and are currently experiencing life as a child soldier, such slavery has had and will continue to have damaging effects on them both psychologically and physically.

    Read More

  • Ishmael Beah Key Passages

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    During Ishmael’s time of war, we see a big change in his personality, “We had been fighting for over two years, and killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone. My childhood had gone by without knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen.” This is a key passage for two major reasons. First of all this is when Ishmael realizes that he had lost all of his innocence as a child. Secondly, this is the point of the story in which will cause the main conflict later on in the story, which is him in rehabilitation coming back from all the horrible memories of what he did in war. During this passage, the author is trying to inform the reader Ishmael was a child up until this point. At this point Ishmael could kill any rebel he wanted to and he could not care less about the consequences for the person’s family that he killed (nor did anyone else in the

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers In The Civil War Essay

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    Children have been used as soldiers in many events, however two that stand out are the use of child soldiers in the Sierra Leone civil war and the drug cartels in Mexico. Most people agree that forcing children to be soldiers is wrong and not humane. The people that make them soldiers transform them into belligerent beings by force. Child soldiers of drug cartels and the armies of Sierra Leone were threatened with their lives if they didn’t become soldiers. The lives of these child soldiers are lives that nobody should live. Situations in both countries are horrible because of the high number of youngsters that are forced to take part in drug use and are transformed into extremely belligerent and inhumane people; in addition they are deprived

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay: A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... instill the violent act of killing in the minds of the child soldiers. Ishmael learns that he must channel his rage and seek revenge for the death of his family. From this, Ishmael and many other young soldiers now believed that revenge was the only way to fight for what they have lost. It is because of this violent filled society that Ishmael and other young soldiers suffered from a disorder called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a mental condition that occurs as a result of a psychological shock, which in this case is the war. As Ishmael was being pulled out of the corruption he was living in, it was at this time that readers realized that he was suffering from PTSD, and was going to receive help in order to correct it. All in all, it is the manipulation and misuse of the power of authority that impacts innocent young soldiers in a psychological manner.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers

    2240 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers: Converting Innocent Children into Armed Killers

    3190 Words  | 7 Pages

    These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers Amnesty

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the major problems in the Middle East is child related. To be specific, child soldiers. It is estimated that there are over 38,000 kids who are forced into being child soldiers (Storr). Because child soldiers can’t prevent their horrific fate, they deserve to be granted amnesty by the United Nations. One main reason why they should be given amnesty is because they are forced and drugged into becoming killers. Children at such a young age don't have the mental ability to think long term of their actions, especially when they are being forced or drugged to. Some may argue that if child criminals get punished for their actions then child soldiers should too, but that is just not the case. The difference being child criminals choose to

    Read More

More about Compare/Contrast Essay: Child Soldiers

Open Document