Looking At Blood Diamond With The Archetypal Criticism Essay

The child soldier Ishmael Beah once said, “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past.” This represented what Ishmael had to go through during the war. The Sierra Leone war began in 1991. This war was fought by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and the National Sierra Leone Army Force. As a consequence, 10,000 child soldiers were recruited, along with them there Ishmael Beah. Beah was only 13 years old when he was forced to become a child soldier by the rebels. In addition, rebel superiors brainwashed Ishmael, along with the rest of the recruited kids by inducing them into drugs such as marijuana, brown-brown and amphetamines. Consequently, a lot of problems were

“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

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

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

The impact of war can have devastating effects on people and the way they live their life. A book by Ishmael Beah titled, A Long Way gone, tells a story about how war has had an impact on him and his way of life. The book takes place in Sierra Leone during the time the RUF had tried to overtake the government. The RUF and the other side of the war got their soldiers by brainwashing kids usually around ten or twelve and had them fight for their side. The RUF was ruthless and did unspeakable things to innocent people and would usually in some cases give drugs to their kids. Ishmael fits the role of both a victim and a victimizer because of what the war and the RUF soldiers had did to him and what he has done to

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, published by Sarah Crichton Books in New York in 2007, tells the haunting story of Ishmael Beah, a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The book begins in January of 1993 in Ishmael’s small village called Mogbwemo, located near Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone. A Long Way Gone addresses a plethora of geographical issues such as refugees and population movements, child exploitation, and most of all: war. Each of these issues directly affects Ishmael, the autobiographer. In his book of memoirs, A Long Way Gone, Beah uses his horrendous experiences as a young teenager thrown into the dead heat of civil war to effectively argue that children have a right to their own childhoods, and that children deserve to have their innocence remain in place until they are older, not have it be stolen by the terror of war. His potent encounters and experiences also highlight successfully the undeniable effects that geographical problems are causing not just in Sierra Leone, but across the entire African continent.

The rebels of RUF effectively used violence to instill fear and obedience into the villagers of Sierra Leone. People of the village even turn on Ishmael and his friends throughout the book. Many of the villagers don't trust them and are afraid because they stayed together in a group walking through villages. Also, the violence intentionally created distrust amongst families. Boys turned their backs on their own fathers for the RUF.

In the book “A Long Way Gone”, by Ishmael Beah, a story of his childhood experiences growing up in Sierra Leone is told. When Beah was only 12 years old, his entire village was destroyed by rebel soldiers. He was separated from his mother and father during this attack. His brother Junior, some friends, and himself had to run away and try to get away from the rebel soldiers. Later in the book, the rebels keep attacking places where the kids are hiding, and he gets separated from Junior, the last family member he knew was alive. Beah has to continue on but continues to struggle living on his own. Even later in the book, Beah is recruited by the military of Sierra Leone to help fight the rebel soldiers at the age of just 13. Beah chooses to share

No one wants their childhood to be utterly destroyed or have their family taken away from them in the blink of an eye, without the chance to even say one last goodbye. The odd chance of that happening to us, here in America, is slim to none. In Sierra Leone on the other hand, along with many other parts of Africa, child soldiers are being put to use in armies. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the recruitment of child soldiers, African living situations, and the psychological trauma endured by the children deals with the issue of child soldiers.

Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing

The doors open slowly when a semi-delirious man uses his back to push them open. Makeshift bandages are nearly bled-through despite the string tourniquets a kind passerby had made for the now-destitute man after he had collapsed on the road to the hospital. He numbly rambles out his story, it’s not one the hospital staff is unfamiliar with but the macabre details are still worthy of nightmares. The man, Ismael, relives a more coherent version once the antibiotics have started to fight off the infections around his amputated hands: “The first victim was dragged forward and forced to kneel before a stump. As the man screamed, he severed one limb first, then the next” (Campbell, Ch. 1, para. 6). Ismael described the way that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacked his village of Koidu, Sierra Leone – an area that is rich in diamonds, the catalyst that led not only to the RUF, but the civil wars that plagued the region. Even though Ismael’s story is likely a dramatized conglomerate of similar tales from the region, it does serve to illustrate the plight for which Sierra Leone was renown. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, and certain other African nations had been in a state of near constant conflict since the 1980s, or earlier.

The novel, “A Long Way Gone”, documents Ishmael Beah’s youth in Sierra Leone in the year of 1993 during a civil war. At the age of twelve, Ishmael lost his family due to the invasion of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) causing his village, Mattru Jong, that he cherishes the most to be destructed. This was the start of his difficult journey of survival. At the age of thirteen, he became a brainwashed child soldier who was filled with raging vengeance against the RUF. Ishmael lost his pure innocence and childhood due to the civil war. Eventually, he escaped from being a corrupted indoctrinate child soldier and was sent to rehab. After some time in rehab, Ishmael received the treatment he needed. He then, lived with his uncle Tommy in the city for some time and soon the war began to repeat in the city, the killings, invasion, and demolition of homes. Ishmael became fearful again and this time he’ll be escaping to another country to avoid from being a soldier again.

Each individual is either directly or indirectly involved in the production of conflict minerals. For those directly involved in the production of conflict minerals, this includes enslaved children and the author of A Long Way Gone. As previously stated in the Child Soldiers PowerPoint, the conflict heightened in Sierra Leone on the account of these minerals (Dolhinow). The author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, survived the conflict and experienced the uneasiness of a soldier. Additionally, Baindu described her experience stating that the rebels “forced” the children “to work in diamond pits (George, 2009).” These narratives directly relate to the issue of conflict minerals and child soldiers. Citizens of several countries, including the

Wouldn’t everyone want to defend their country of attacks by rebel soldiers? A far too young boy has seen the world at its worst in Ishmael Beah’s autobiography, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Ishmael tells his tale when war hits Sierra Leone, and he becomes a killing machine, overcomes his mournful past, and rediscovers who he is. Literary themes used to show the violence include, the theme of hope, irony, and imagery.

Whilst leading to civilians fleeing Sudan and Sierra Leone to start new lives. The histories behind both wars are quite similar as both were solely motivated by natural resources and power imbalance. As The Revolutionary United Front had established in 1991 as rebel army that shared one goal, which was to overthrow Sierra Leone's government. Often referred to as the “Blood Diamond” era in certain African countries. Although diamonds and natural resources were a significant motivating factor, there were other causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Such as the pre-war frustrations and injustices that had transpired for decades. More than twenty years of poor governance, poverty and corruption created a setting for the RUF causing a rebellion, as civilians desired for change in Sierra Leone. Corruption and mismanagement led to the downfall of the country leading to an increase of recruits for the RUF. For Sierra Leoneans who did not have access to cultivating land, joining the rebel cause was an opportunity to seize property with deadly force. After leaving over 50 000 casualties and 2.6 million citizens displaced from Sierra Leone. The war came to an end in 2002 concluding in a loss for the