"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you." Eric Hoffer
It is undoubtedly hard for a child, even one who witnesses and experiences war, to deeply understand it. Ishmael is a twelve year old boy in Sierra Leona. Despite the fact that he endures and lives war every second of his life for a period of years, there is never a point in which he really understands what goes on around him until after the war. Fear is what allowed him to survive; fear of being killed or tortured, and fear of being recruited by the opposite side. Essentially, seeing and feeling endless fear is what drove him to stay alive, “Their eyes still showed fear, as if death hadn't freed them from the madness that continued to unfold” (Beah, 49). Watching people tortured and having their lives as well as their families destroyed is also what allowed him to become a great soldier. When he is recruited to the government army, his lieutenant encourages the young boys to fight by forcing them to see that the rebels fighters are the people that killed their families and caused them constant fear and poverty. This anger may have been the source of courage and purpose to the fighting and killing, but what made Ishmael a warrior was having to see the casualties on his side, those who were fighting for his freedom, lie dead on the ground. Immediately he went numb, and the killing was easy. He had the power of the gun, and therefore the power to get revenge for his family members killed and the childhood that he had lost because of what the rebel fighters had done. Now that he had power, he could evoke pain and fear right back upon these fighters. After Ishmael suffered a bullet wound in his foot, he shot every soldier that he captured in the foot and let them bleed and suffer for days before shooting them in the head. His torture ended in fearlessness by gaining leverage over his enemies. As a child, he did not understand this killing as killing, but rather snubbing the enemy for wronging him. He caused the enemy to have the same suffering and fear that he once had, and therefore became powerful to himself as well as his comrades.
1 comment:
It is difficult to imagine a child shooting soldiers, but yes, it does happen. Fear certainly can be the motivation. What could he teach children in later decades? (Of course he is writing of his youth, but just wondering about the various things he could teach others.)
Can you compare Ishmael's fear to the fear children in gangs may have right here in America? How would we look at a child in a gang shooting others, shooting the police?
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