Book Review: Fear And Brainwashing

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Fear and Brainwashing
There are kids hesitant to watch the fireworks because of fear. They fear the darkness at night, loud noises, and large crowds with people they don’t know. For some kids, fear has a negative impression and long term effect psychologically. They try hard to avoid and escape from the situation. Not every kid is lucky enough to escape from their fears. Much worse than the holiday trauma, there are many children in the African Ivory Coast, who suffer from diseases, hunger, poverty, and rape. In that environment, many kids had to go through fear and violence. When children can not escape from their fear, they can be easily brainwash by other people. The book, A Long Way Gone (2007) the story is about how Ishmael goes through …show more content…

Before they had to shoot their enemies, the children soldiers were provided not only guns, but with capsules as for their energy booster. “We walked for long hours and stopped only to eat sardines and corned beef with gari, sniff cocaine, brown brown, and take some white capsules. The combination of these drugs gave us a lot of energy and made us fierce”(122). Drugs give the child soldiers fierce and hate. It puzzle the child soldiers with more hate and energy to fight, but they had no sense of being alive. “The idea of death didn’t cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water” (122). Drugs completely control their minds, except that they do not notice what is happening to themselves. When they are use to the life of wars and killing, they thought their lives are make for wars because they are losing their sense of living and being a normal person. “A young soldier came by with a plastic bag full of some kind of tablets. They looked like capsules, but they were plain white.He handed them to each of us with a cup of water. ‘The corporal said it will boost your energy,’ the soldier announced with a secretive smile on his face” (116). He’s secret smile is an indication of the military’s evil action , which is controlling the child soldiers by giving them drugs. As soon as the drugs are out of function in Ishmael’s body, he feels a severe and uncontrollable pain in his body, and the military is providing him more drugs to release his pain. “I immediately woke up from my dream and began shooting inside the tent, until my dream were finished. The corporal and the lieutenant came in afterward and took me outside. I was sweating, and they threw water on my face and gave me a few more of the white capsules” (120). Military provides him more drugs to calm him down, but the military knew he is addicted to the drugs and this is great for the military

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