A Long Way Gone Character Analysis

Child Soldiers Unacceptable

In the novel A Long A Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael is the main character. Ishmael is an African boy in his village that is attacked by rebels and runs with his brother and his friend fleeing for their lives being separated from their families. Later on he is separated from his brother and friends in another attack and joins another group of boys after living alone in the forest for months. Searching for his family with other boys after realizing that his family had died and facing, many other hardships Ishmael becomes a child soldier becoming very scarred then begins undergoing rehabilitation and leaves Sierra Leone. Child soldiers should not be used during war …show more content…
Children are not completely accepted as solides because children are dependent and need someone to protect them, this just being one reason why they aren't completely accepted by society. One time where this occurred was in the book A Long Way Gone where Ishmael is not completely accepted as a soldier. An example of this occurring was when the sergeant doctor refused his salute, “ Yes sir” I said, i tried to raise my hand to salute him, but he tenderly brought my hand down.”(Beah 158). This shows that the doctor knew child soldiers were immoral this coming from an army man who has seen the battlefield and treated a lot of wounded man says a lot given his experience. Furthermore a rehabilitator Esther even though she had heard on of his war stories still she didn't think of him as a soldier. Thereby showing that even though he had done things some people would deem as inhumane he still was just a child who was tried to be made into something he wasn't. Another instance in where the children were not seen as soldier was by the way the military army and rehab staff treated them as a whole. One way they treated them like children and not solider is by the way they had put the boys together not looking and what boys were on what side in the Sierra Leone war. Additionally they were treated like boys when on page 136 when they began to fight with the other boys the military army tried to break up the fight as the it wasn't a fight amongst soldiers or rebels(Beah 136). Them trying to break up the fight by yelling and firing their guns into the air shows that they didn't see them as fellow soldiers . In child soldier conflict by Zelia Zerrougui a child soldier activist says “Children are deliberately targeted as they are manipulated more easily than adults and can be indoctrinated to perform crimes and atrocities without asking questions. this is credible because it was created to

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