The Bite Of The Mango Analysis

In the memoir A long Way Gone Ishmael Beah states “When I was young, my father used to say, “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” (Beah 54). Throughout the war Ismael Beah survives many difficult situations, that make him think is it worth it to keep running. Ishmael Beah, always remembers what his dad said to motivate him to try and keep surviving the war. Ishmael Beah used adaptability, the kindness of others and bravery to overcome the adversities of the war in Sierra Leone.

Ishmael Beah, the author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, is a twelve-year old boy who is trapped inside a war zone in Sierra Leone, Africa. When his home town, Mattru Jong is attacked by “the rebels,” he is separated from his family and is forced to run from everything he once loved. Ishmael flees from town to town with other teenagers who face the same problems, trying to survive and escaping attacks from villagers. Beah writes, “People were terrified of boys our age. Some had heard rumors about young boys being forced by rebels to kill their families and burn their villages,” (Beah 37). At such a young age Ishmael was trying to survive off of what he had; sometimes he went days without food. Ishmael was deprived of more than just his clothing.

Ishmael Beah was a boy from Sierra Leone who became a soldier in the country`s tragic civil war. He spent nearly all his childhood running away from the war and eventually ended up joining the army. During difficult times, Ishmael always held on to hope to continue his life’s journey. In A Long Way Gone, the theme is “Always have hope”, and is shown through Ishmael Beah’s hope for a better life, to find his family, and through the rehab staff`s hope for the boy soldiers.

The human behavior is one that will haunt humanity forever. A Long Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, is an original non-fiction story based on Ishmael’s personal experiences in warfare. But, shockingly, he witnessed warfare from the small eyes of his teenage years. Having to experience one of the worst things in history, at such a young age, is terrible. War, in this case or in any case, relates to both human condition and human nature. Human conditions, in short, are things that that defines the human existence (birth, death, etc.) Human nature, close to human conditions, are how humans act naturally to their environment and others. The theme of A Long Way Gone ties strongly with both of these with a passion. It describes war as an art, with human condition as a canvas and human nature to paint in the fine details. The question asked is what Ishmael Beah’s experience tells us about the meaning of the human being, and to answer we have to poke at some topics that we’ve covered. The answers to the sole question include the hypothetical existence of pure evil, the important keys of human social life, and how war affects one’s own mind.

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.

In the introduction of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he writes, “There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a faraway and different land. It wasn’t until refugees started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country” (Beah 1). During this statement Beah says that he is completely oblivious to the war around him. These people living in Sierra Leone had adapted to the war to the point where their perception had been altered. With this memoir he shares his experiences and obstacles he faces throughout the war to become a beckon of hope in this despairing country. Ishmael uses his social skills, timely luck, and emotional strength, to find the courage to overcome these adversities and survive in and out of the war.

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.

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 the memoir of Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah states that his life’s journey has been a huge obstacle, but has learned to overcome that struggle by venting while the two contradictory sides continue their battling. Beah accomplishes his goal of explaining to the reader his point of view through the use of rhetorical questions, scenic narration, and parallelism. Ishmael Beah’s apparent purpose is to share personal accounts of his life with his fellow country men, in a country where war affects people to a level beyond the imagination. He is able to apply his purpose using a grotesque and bitter tone. Beah approaches his audience of ordinary people in this manner in order to vent his feelings about war by

Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the aspects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation with war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as young boy and the many issues he faces while living in

“Things had rapidly changed in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything” (Beah 29). Ishmael Beah’s harrowing story about what it meant to be a rebel during the war in Sierra Leone is disturbing and unfathomable. For him, killing was a second nature and he considered the war to be as addictive as cocaine and marijuana. Unlike A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Mariatu Kamara’s story is told from a completely different perspective. In The Bite of the Mango, she describes having her hands chopped off by the rebels and became impregnated by her uncle’s close friend. With the help of journalism, Mariatu’s story was heard globally. At the end of the book, she learns how to use her voice as a catalyst for good and

I consider the way the army conditioned the author, by usage of drugs and civic duty the leading factors why he partook in the brutality of the war. The battles he remembers, the way he attacked rebels, is told in a polarizing manner; it is noted that some of the rebels are in fact forced in enlistment. Ishmael Beah takes on a distinct lifestyle that forces him to act as an adult would. The way he dehumanizes and acts superior to others, can also be seen during

He trekked for days without food, helplessly watched rebel forces immolate villages, and spent two years killing enemy soldiers as a young teenager. He is Ishmael Beah and unlike much of his family and friends, he lived to tell his story. In 2007, Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone was published, an intense but honest account of the atrocities Beah faced as a child during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. As the story depicts the awful tragedies that civil war and abuses of human rights inflict upon people around the world, it embodies Sharon High School’s Preventing and Confronting Global Injustice course, which prioritizes studying these case studies in order to prevent injustice from occurring in the future. Not only does the memoir explain the deadly war, but it also enlightens readers, emphasizing the importance of healing and rediscovering one's humanity, another essential aspect of the class. Beah successful teaches through his life story that although civil war permanently shapes and frequently destroys countries, families, and children's loss of innocence, there are ways to combat the injustice and find love, peace, and humanity. Therefore, A Long Way Gone is an extremely eye-opening memoir that depicts the struggle of Sierra Leone’s Lost Boys through Beah’s immensely heart wrenching experiences.

Childs soldier in conflict, Mariatu Kamara along with Susan Mcclelland together wrote the book called The Bite of the Mango. Mariatu Kamara who was born and raised in the west African nation of Sierra Leone wrote this book based on her experience living in brutal civil war with the help of Susan Mcclelland who is a freelance magazine journalist based in Toronto. Mariatu Kamara harrowing experiences as a child victim of war and the aftermath are the subject of her story The Bite of the Mango. Throughout the book Mariatu went through hardships and got to the point wanting to commit suicide multiple time. She show us that even through time of pain and discouragement, if you keep your head up and always look forward you will successfully find joy in life. The moral and ethical issues that the story raised were how in so many countries in poverty, many innocent citizens are caught in the crossfire of violent parties fighting against the government. Mariatu and her whole village are one example of the thousands of innocent citizens who were caught in the crossfire, many of which lost their hands and were told to go to their president and show him. The problem with the violent groups injuring these innocent citizens then telling them to go show their president, is that many of these citizens are uneducated and poor and did not even know what a president was. Mariatu Kamara led a carefree childhood growing up in a small village in Sierra Leone, until the unfateful day she was sent

Brief Summary and “Arrangement of Book:-The book is divided into 21 chapters. They are primarily organized chronologically, detailing the eventsin the order they were experienced, with occasional flashbacks or forward flashes. Summary:-Chapters 1-4:Ishmael Beah is introduced as a young boy who knows war is around him, but has yet to be“touched” (6) by war. His world is completely changed when war reaches his hometown in Mogbwemo.During the attack, he is on a journey to perform at a talent show with a group of boys, one of them hisbrother, who share an interest in rap music. When they learn of the tragedy, they wish to return home inhopes of being reunited with their families. However, the war has scattered their families, and the journeyis