Similarities Between The Bite Of The Mango And A Long Way Gone

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.

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

To start off, all of Ishmael’s problems stem from his original conflict when he has to run away from the war, his family, and his friends. The origin of the situation was when the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) attacking his home city of Mogbwemo (where his parents were). Later on in the month the rebels attack Mattru Jong (where

A Long Way Gone tells a story of how an innocent little boy can become a killing machine and lose

The Bite of the Mango speaks about the war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s and is through the eyes of Mariatu Kamara, a female and amputee, while A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is written by Ishmael Beah, a boy soldier that lost everything. They both were casualties to one of the most brutal civil wars; however, their experiences were different due to gender.

Monday morning, Sally, a twelve-year-old American girl, is woken up by her father. As she gets ready to go to school, her mother hands her a backpack and lunch with a quick kiss goodbye. Meanwhile, Zarina, a twelve-year-old Sierra Leone girl, wakes herself up to get ready for work. Her aunt says good morning as they both head from their home to the cassava fields. Both of these girls have a traditional family setting. In America children in a traditional family grow up with both biological parents and any siblings they have. In Sierra Leone, the setting for both The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone, children of traditional families live with aunts and uncles as well as many children from different parents. These different views of

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.

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

Ishmael reveals that he still lives by something he had learned during his time as a soldier. He says, “People like the lieutenant, whom I had obeyed and trusted, had made me question trusting anyone, especially adults...I had come to believe that people befriended only to exploit one another” (page 153). Since Ishmael has the idea implemented in his head that no one is to be trusted, he isolates himself from everyone and everything that has the potential to help him on the road to recovery after fighting in the war. Another example of his destructive belief of distrust is displayed when Ishmael meets his new family for the first time. He immediately wonders, “What if he is just some man pretending to be my uncle?” (p. 172) and struggles to show his happiness because he “had become accustomed to not showing it” (p. 178). This is just one of the many instances in which Ishmael prevents himself from opening up due to his secluded way of thinking. Ultimately, Ishmael becomes preoccupied with the idea that no one is to be trusted, which results in him isolating himself from those he

I strongly believe that one of the main purposes of this book is for the author, Ishmael, to educate his audience on one of the negative impacts of war that strongly impact children, the loss of their innocence. He demonstrates this through his personal experiences and his loss. For example at the beginning of the book, Ishmael is living a normal life and is like any other kid, living an innocent life and never having been exposed to violence. This is evidenced on page 23 as Ishmael explains how he felt as the rebel attack took place in his town. He confessed “The sounds of the guns was so terrifying it confused everyone…….My

When Ishmael was thirteen a war broke out in his country. He demonstrated great courage, determination, and strength from the beginning of his treacherous journey until the end. One day Ishmael’s village, Mattru Jong, was raided by rebels and everyone had to leave. There was only one way to escape and everyone in town rushed there in a panic. The rebels didn't wanted everyone to abandon the village they "began shooting their guns at people instead of shooting into the sky” (Beah 24). They knew that they had to find a way to escape because it was especially risky boys their age. Aware of what could happen to them they were determined to escape. With great courage “they [We] dodged from bush to bush and made it to the other side...Immediately

Victims are usually extremely vulnerable members of society, chosen for that very reason. They include women, men and children. They are often young people who are hoping for a better life, have an unstable home life, are isolated from family, lack employment opportunities, have limited education level, possess a history of abuse, have undocumented status, addiction, disability, and suffer poverty, illiteracy, or some combination of these characteristics.

The maltreatment of children occurs at extraordinarily increasing proportions and is becoming a significant health risk to the children it is happening to. One of the major public health concerns should be identifying the risk factors associated with the maltreatment of these children and the just how much resistance these children really have against this abuse. Regardless of how much elasticity the general public in a whole may think these children have against maltreatment, they are still at a major risk of having diminished or compromised psychological and physical health later in life as an adult and are also are at extreme risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Children who were not subject to maltreatment are still

These children have been injured by either weapons or the fact that they killed a person. These children have been injured greatly take Omar Khadr when he did kill that Surgent he got shot in the chest twice and he got blinded in one eye. Also some of these kids are mentally scarred by the fact they killed all those people and felt no remorse until they realized it. These poor children have been forced to take a lot of drugs and alcohol so they need to heal all the physical and mental dependence of the drug. Also their families are gone, dead, or have decided to sell these kids. These children have lost their families or were abandoned so they should be healed.