Ishmael's Innocence

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Customarily, people don’t empathize or concern about the thing that they are not actually related to. Hence, sometimes, those who have never been in the war or thought about being part of it, don’t know about the reality of it and think that being a part of the war is “cool.”Nevertheless, the reality is markedly different from those thoughts. A Long way gone, a book of Ishmael’s memoirs of being a boy soldier shows the atrocious truth of the war and enlightens that the war is not a subject that could be seen as cool. It demonstrates how people’s jubilant lives are being destroyed and changed devastatingly during the war. Additionally, it depicts in detail the shocking devastation of the war, the portrayal of humanity found in it, and one of …show more content…
As he confronts the war, he is forced to encounter some miserable and adults situations, which he isn’t ready for and doesn’t need to know if the war didn’t happen to him. “Our innocence had been replaced by fear and we had become monsters” (Beah, 55). This quote demonstrates Ishmael’s self-awareness of loss of innocence as he tried to get through the war and his realization takes him even further from his identity of a child. To survive and to revenge on rebels who killed his family, he joins the army. It becomes a turning point for him to change his attitude and view towards himself from a child to a soldier. As he becomes a part of the army, he receives the army uniforms and his cassettes are burnt with his clothes.“I ran to the fire, but the cassettes already started to melt. Tears formed in my eyes, and my lips shook as I turned away” (Beah, 110). This quote shows his part of childhood is cut from him--the rap cassettes. The rap cassettes save his life several times: whenever he is arrested by people from the village that he goes to get some help, the cassettes convinces people that Ishmael and his friends are just a child. The cassettes, symbolism of his innocence and childhood, is taken from Ishmael and burnt as he receives the army uniforms and weapons; the demolition of the rap
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