Analysis Of The Bite Of The Mango

1. The Bite of a Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland, is a powerful story about the experiences of young Mariatu Kamara, a Canadian refugee from Sierra Leone. The culture of Sierra Leone during the 90’s and 2000’s impacted Mariatu’s life and how she ends up in Canada. One aspect of the Sierra Leonean culture is that young girls get married and have children at a very young age. When Mariatu was only 12 years old, an older man named Salieu wanted to marry her, but she rejected him. After that, while Mariatu was all alone at her house, Salieu came in and raped her, making her pregnant. She later gave birth to a baby, Abdul, who died due to malnutrition. Mariatu getting raped by an older man shows how the Sierra Leonean culture impacted her life because, in the West, this would not be acceptable, and Salieu would have been punished, although in the book, he is later shot by rebel soldiers. Next, another culture aspect of Sierra Leone is that a civil war is going on during Mariatu’s time there. Rebels and soldiers alike were attacking and destroying the country. One day, Mariatu had to go to a nearby village to get food, where rebels captured her

Violence consumes Sierra Leone during a civil war, as well as Ishmael Beah’s childhood. This theme of war highlights itself through the events of bloodshed, gunfights, and senseless murder in Ishmael’s A Long Way Gone, but can also be seen through the hidden details of literary devices throughout the book of memoirs. To express the violence involved in his traumatic experience in Sierra Leone, Ishmael uses imagery, personification, and quotes an individual’s diction. First off, Ishmael’s use of imagery paints a vivid image in the mind of the reader.

“The media often focus on the trauma people suffer, forgetting to tell us about their ability to recover and the humanity that remains intact” (Ishmael Beah). The quote of Ishmael Beah was used to describe Mariatu Kamara’s autobiography called The Bite of the Mango. Kamara’s story shows people the horrible events she lived through and how perseverance and optimism is essential for survival. If it hadn’t been for Kamara’s unbreakable will, she would have died when the rebels first came to her village, captured her, and cut her hands off. Despite the loss of her hands, Mariatu Kamara inspired others with her strength to continue living through her childhood and later in life became an activist and humanitarian.

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

The catastrophic war in Sierra Leone included all ages that were hurt, amputated, or killed right outside of their own houses. After reading the two books, The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone, there were some similarities and differences the two main characters came across in their books. Living through this event was a very deplorable time for victims. The two books, The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone, are both similar and different in how the two main characters are both victimized but differently because of their gender.

“I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child” (Beah 199). Ishmael Beah had a long road to rehabilitate but he was able to rehabilitate because he had vital forces shaping him. In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, a long way gone, Ishmael was a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He wrote a memoir sharing his experiences of being a child soldier and of him rehabilitation. During 1991 to 2002 there was a vicious civil war going on in the western African country of Sierra Leone between the RUF rebels and the government forces. Ishmael Beah was a young 10-year-old boy who lived in a small village, he liked rap music and dancing hip hop with his friends. Ishmael was never affected by the war until one day when

Kamara originated from Sierra Leone and lived in small villages until the age of 12. She heard talk of rebels coming to her villages and she and her family prepared for it every time until the day her grandmothers superstitions came true. “Whenever you dream of palm oil’, my grandmother had told me when I was seven, ‘blood will spill by the end of the day” (Kamara 25). Her first night in Manarma she dreamt of palm oil, and the next morning her life was changed forever. Ambushed by the rebels and nowhere to go, she was forced to watch villagers burned alive inside a house. After the rebels let her go, she travelled around until she found help from a man who pointed her in the direction of women who would help her to a clinic in Port Loko. Upon reaching the village, she was treated as if she was a threat, and after clearing up the misunderstanding, was told why. The rebels had been sending young girls under the guise of needing help, into villages, and once their guards were done, the rebels would attack. Teens were to be wary of in the villages. Once she reached the hospital and

“Where is the Mango Princess”, written by Cathy Crimmins, is the journey through her husband’s, Alan’s, brain injury. Alan was hit on the head by a speedboat, and from which, he suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Eventually, awakening from his coma, his recovery took his wife and child on a roller coaster ride of emotions. This story explores the heartbreaking and frustrating experiences of a caregiver to a patient recovering from TBI. Crimmins uses slight humor and honesty to welcome the reader into the chaotic life of caring for her husband. This book has darker themes like most, so it is important that the atmosphere is kept light and airy through humorous attempts. It is the most admirable trait that Crimmins has, in my opinion. I’m not fond of reading, so the humor kept me occupied; I really enjoyed the humorous aspects of this story. This book also focuses on educating the beholder about TBI and the effects of severe brain damage. Though Alan had recovered physically from the accident, his mental recovery was still an on-going process in which rehab was required. She went on to describe the accident as: “One day, you and your family are hiking across a long, solid plain, when out of the sky comes a blazing meteor that just happens to hit one family member on the head. The meteor creates a huge rift in the landscape, dragging the unlucky one down to the bottom of the crevice it has made. You spend the next year on a rescue mission, helping him climb to the top,

Since the start of the Sierra Leonean war in March of 1991, innocent civilians have been the primary target of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)’s wrath. The people of Sierra Leone have faced significant problems due to the invasions and attacks by the Rebel Forces and are the main population that is being affected by this group’s disapproval of the government. One person who experienced profound changes in her life due to the start of this war is Mariatu Kamara, a victim of a Rebel attack that cost her both her childhood and her hands. Throughout her memoir, “The Bite of the Mango,” she is faced with numerous traumatic events and meets an abundance of people who were very significant in her life and some of whom helped her survive the war. Kamara also gives the reader a variety of themes to use as a foundation to understanding war life, which also serve to help readers learn more about life, grow as people, and rise above to help others in need. Mariatu Kamara has not only changed the lives of people all throughout Sierra Leone by giving them a voice and an outlet to share their experiences, but has also proved to be an inspiration for countless amputees around the world.

Manipulation is a key factor in the outbreak of a war. Ishmael Beah discusses the several instances of manipulation that occur in Sierra Leone. In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah discuses his life during the civil war outbreak in Sierra Leone. He explains how the affects of war affected in both a positive and negative connotation. Several publishers seek a better understanding of the struggle that Beat faces during the time of the civil war. Throughout the novel, Beah discusses the damage Sierra Leone goes through. He learns valuable lessons throughout his time in combat, which he seeks to share with others. Although Beah describes the importance of soldiers in a time of war, he believes in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone”, that awareness should

While reading The Bite of the Mango, there are many traumatic events Mariatu experiences. Even these events are extremely devastating, heartbreaking, and life changing, Mariatu learns to seek the positives in her situations to make her life more joyful. The first traumatic event that Mariatu experienced was her little brother Santigie dying when Mariatu was 6 years old. Over the past years, Mariatu has formed a strong bond with him through playing and talking. When he died, in order to cope with her loss, she imagined that Santigie could be a spirit watching over her. “I was walking one day, I thought I could hear his voice calling me. I turned to look, but there was no one there. This happened several times over the next year.” (Kamara 19), mariatu proclaims. These occurrences made Mariatu think that Santigie was truly a spirit looking over her. Mariatu contemplating this assumably helped her cope with her issues by thinking that Santigie is in a better place now, looking over her shoulder.

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir “A Long Way Gone”, Beah’s imagery reflects both his decrepit emotional state and Sierra Leone’s disarray. When Beah explains how he and Kaloko went to Kamator to see if there were signs of anything living, he describes the scene as such, “The silence in the village was too scary. I was scared when the wind blew, shaking the thatched roofs, and I felt as if I were out of my body wandering somewhere” (46). Here, Beah’s distinguished use of imagery represents his worn emotional state and Sierra Leone’s disarray. How the war has not only turned villages into ghost towns, but also displays the emptiness and the fear that he has felt during this experience. This imagery represents the effects the war had on Sierra Leone

Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland’s co-written non-fictional novel, The Bite of the Mango is a page-turning adventure through the mind of a young girl who struggles with many physical and emotional challenges in her daily life as a poor village girl in Sierra Leone. Mariatu Kamara is an eleven-year-old girl who has learned how to live without her hands. In result of being a victim and survivor of a rebel attack, Mariatu is now a double amputee and has made many lifestyle changes to work around her disability.

In a world full of blame and lack of accountability, an individual’s role in injustice needs to be questioned. In the early 1960’s, after many years under Belgian rule, the Congolese people formed an uprising and gained independance. However, the Congo was ill prepared for the organization that independence demanded. The Soviet Union offered aid to the Prime Minister of the Congo. Since this was during the Cold War, the United States retaliated and supported a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Mobutu ruled with an iron fist, resulting in pain and oppression of the Congolese. Looking back on history, it is easy to see who was at fault. But at the time, it was not easy to identify blame, especially for the Americans. Barbara Kingsolver wrote about the Congo’s trials much later in 1991. She used a narration from baptist missionary family to symbolize the different kinds of guilt Americans share. In Anne M. Austenfield’s narrative journal, she described Kingsolver’s ability to use, "several character-focalizers whose limited perspectives project highly subjective views of history" (Austenfeld). This technique allowed for Kingsolver to not only produce a more reliable account of what occurred, but to depict her desired theme and message. Kingsolver, in her novel The Poisonwood Bible, uses a political allegory to explore the different notions of guilt through the limited perspectives of her characters.