The Pain of a Child Soldier

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Recommended: Children and war effects

Throughout the two novels, The Bite of the Mango, and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, there are two main characters, Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah that are greatly impacted by the civil war in Sierra Leone. Both characters were damaged physically and psychologically. Mariatu Kamara sustained the worse injuries of the two characters affected by the war.
While Mariatu was evading the rebel soldiers, she spent a large amount of time traveling alone, even while she was wounded. After Mariatu had witnessed her entire village and all of her friends and family killed right before her eyes, the rebel soldiers proceeded to amputate the arms of Mariatu. After her arms were chopped off by the rebels, Mariatu was forced to travel alone to find help for herself. During this time of travel, Mariatu had no one to help her or guide her to the hospital. Whereas with Beah, a lot of the time he was traveling with other members of the army he was a part of.
Although both Mariatu and Beah encounter many psychologically troubling events, Mariatu is impacted greater than Beah. Mariatu is a young innocent girl that was attacked for a reason she did not even know about. In the book, one of the child soldiers tell Mariatu to ask the president for new arms after they had been amputated, and later it is realized that at the time, Mariatu had not even know what a president was. This shows the innocence that Mariatu holds, whereas Beah was a child solider. Beah was stronger mentally than Mariatu. The events that Mariatu encountered were more traumatizing and haunting the events Beah encountered.
The worse injury was sustained by Mariatu. She lost her arms to the rebel army. "I was captured by the rebels with my cousins and held hostage for ma...

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...oved from the army, he was taken to a rehabilitation center where was well cared for and taken care of.
Both characters, Ishmael Beah and Mariatu Kamara endured mental and physical injuries that have had a huge impact on them and made them the people they are today. Although Beah went through many enduring events, Mariatu suffered many more injuries, physically and mentally compared to the injuries that Beah had sustained.

Works Cited
"Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, a Division of the Secretary of State." LAPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
Kamara, Mariatu, and Susan McClelland. The Bite of the Mango. [Toronto]: Annick, 2008. Print.
"Sierra Leone Survivor Loses Hands, but Not Hope." DW.DE. N.p., 18 Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.

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