Child Soldiers Are Victims

There is a huge issue of child soldiers worldwide. Child soldiers are being used everywhere. The only place they haven’t been used is Antarctica. The majority of child soldiers are used in Asia. There are many different ways that children become child soldiers. Based on how they become child soldiers people have a question if child soldiers are either victims or perpetrators. Child soldiers are perpetrators because they were forced to join the army and manipulated to stay; they had a hard time integrating back into society, and the view of the people who think that child soldiers are perpetrators are wrong when they say that child soldiers did everything voluntarily when they actually didn’t.

The children were forced to join the army and manipulated to stay. In the article, “Armed & Underage” the writer talks about former child soldier Ishmael Beah which said, “When Beah was 13, Sierra Leone was embroiled in a civil war. Rebels attacked his village, and Beah was separated from his parents. After spending months wandering through his war-torn country, he was forcibly recruited in Sierra Leone’s Army. Beah was armed with an AK-47, drugged, and taught to kill.” Beah was one of the children forced to join the army. They drugged the children so that they would stay. Another example of how they were forced to join the army was in “Military History” where the writer talks about another boy who said, “‘I was attending primary school.’ The young boy speaks in a monotone, masking his emotions as he recounts events that irrevocably changed his life. ‘The rebels came and attacked us. They killed my mother and father in front of my eyes. I was 10 years old. They took me with them.’” That’s how children were forced to join the army and manipulated to stay.

            After being a child soldier, victims have a hard time integrating back into society. In the article “Military History” the author elaborates on the aftermath by saying, “For the child soldiers, the impact of being plunged into war creates problems long after the end of the actual combat. Many suffer long-term trauma that can disrupt their development.” Former child soldiers have memories of their experiences of killing people in the war and had to learn to face these memories and move on with their life. Many girls had to face memories of being abused. In the article “Military History” the author describes the hardships of being a girl child soldier, in which he said, “Girl soldiers are often singled out for sexual abuse, even by their own commanders, and have a hard time integrating back into society at war’s end.” They had to get used to being around men in society while facing the memories of being abused by other men in the war. They would be scared to interact with men prior to previous experiences and had the thought of potentially being abused again. After being forcibly recruited to war, child soldiers had to face the unwanted memories of combat and try to integrate back into society.

            Some believe that child soldiers are perpetrators but if they think critically, they’ll see that they’re actually victims. In the article “Armed & Underage” the author describes an army of child soldiers who aren’t willingly prone to violence in which he says, “It is less an army than a drugged-out street gang with military-grade weapons and 13-year-old brides. Its ranks are filled with boys brainwashed to burn down huts and pound newborn babies to death.” People who say child soldiers are perpetrators would say that the quote shows that the child soldiers committed horrifying crimes. It actually shows that when the child soldiers were brainwashed they did whatever the commander told them to do. Later in the article the author includes a quote from a commander explaining the reason behind targeting children to be soldiers. The quote said, “‘Child soldiers are ideal,’ a military commander from Chad told Human Rights Watch. ‘They don’t complain, they don’t expect to be paid – and if you tell them to kill, they kill.’” This shows how the commanders took advantage of the children’s’ obedience. People who think that child soldiers are perpetrators think that child soldiers willingly stayed in the war without escaping to get away from killing. In the Interview if Ishmael Beah video, Ishmael Beah said, “You’ve lost yourself. It completely becomes your life. You have to do it to survive.” The people who think that child soldiers are perpetrators should know that they are wrong because the child soldiers couldn’t escape. If they did escape the army would hunt them down and kill them. So, child soldiers are victims because everything they did was involuntary.

            Overall, child soldiers are victims. Child soldiers were forced to join the army when they were captured or in other ways. They had a hard time integrating back into society with all the trauma prior to the war. Lastly, the people who think that child soldiers are perpetrators are completely wrong when they say that the child soldiers did everything voluntarily, when they had to do it to survive. What side do you take, perpetrators or victims?

Response on "Summer of my German Soldier"

          I just finished the book “Summer of My German Soldier” by Bette Greene Patty Bergen has a lot of hardships. The whole story takes place in Jenkinsville, Arkansas during World War II. Patty is a Jewish girl. Her parents do not like the way she dresses, acts, and looks. They want her to be more like Sharon who is Patty’s sister. Sharon is more of the girly type. Her dad is extremely strict with Patty and almost never strict with Sharon. Patty tries to make them appreciate her everyday by acting nice in front of them and telling them what they want to hear. It gets harder for her when she meets Anton.

            Anton is a German prisoner. They meet when all the prisoners are brought to buy things at her father’s shop. They meet again when Anton escapes from the prison and is escaping. Patty lets him stay in her secret hiding spot above the garage. She brings him food and has to lie to her parents of where all the food went. When police turn up at her house to search for Anton and question her, she fakes being nervous. This makes the father scream at the police and made the police leave. When Patty sat with a poor boy her father got angry and started to beat her. Anton saw this and rushed out to stop Patty’s father before he could whip her with his belt but was too late. Ruth, their maid, saw Anton run out and questions Patty about it. Since Patty is very close to Ruth she told her everything. That day Anton told her he was going to leave. Patty and Ruth gathered up some money and Patty gave it to Anton when he was leaving. In return he gave her his gold ring and a kiss.

            Later on when police found out Patty was behind Anton’s hiding they came to question her. Patty tried to deny it but they told her news that made her admit. (I’m not going to tell you what she was told because I don’t want to spoil it). She always kept her ring with her and wore it around. I thought this story was very sad and sweet. The only person who messed it up was the dad. I wish he was never in the story because he was so harsh.  

Response on " The Clockwork Three"

In the book The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby, Giuseppe, Frederick, and Hannah are brought together. Each of them has something they want to achieve and hardships that go along with it. Giuseppe wants to get a ticket back to Italy to be with his siblings. Frederick is trying to be a journeyman. Hannah is trying to support her sick dad and family by leaving her education and working in a hotel as a maid. These three have goals that come with hardships too.

          Giuseppe wants to get a ticket back to Italy to his siblings but he has to do it very carefully. His employer, Stephano, will punish him if he gets to know that Giuseppe is saving up money secretly to buy a ticket to Italy. Giuseppe has to hide the money and make sure that Stephano doesn’t get to it. Frederick is trying to create a clockwork man to present and try to become a journeyman. Master Branch is Frederick’s apprentice and Frederick has to hide the clockwork man from him or else Master branch will tell him to stop because he won’t be able to be a journeyman that early. Hannah works in the Gilbert Hotel as a maid so that she can support her sick dad and her family. She left her education just to work to support her family.

          Each of them helps each other in getting through their hardships. At the end each of them succeed but also help others in getting through their hardships. I wonder what would happen if they didn’t meet each other. Would each of them still succeed or fail in accomplishing their goals?

Reading Response on "Peeps"

            In the fantastic novel Peeps by Scott Westerfeld Cal is the main character. Cal is a peep or otherwise known as a vampire. He searches for other peeps and tries to cure them. Now he’s trying to find his creator who he knows is named Morgan. While he’s searching for his Morgan he meets this girl named Lace who lives in the same building that Morgan used to live in. Cal starts to have a closer relationship with Lace and gets more information about Morgan. The author writes the book in an unusual way that I haven’t seen before.

            The author writes one chapter continuing on with the story then after that chapter includes a chapter with just facts that sort of relate to the previous chapter. One part is when in one chapter Cal is looking for bodily fluids in the apartment that Morgan used to live in. Then the next chapter is about how we transformed from hair keeping us warm to clothes keeping us warm. I didn’t really get that part because I thought that bodily fluids came from inside you and hair is on the outside. That’s how I mean it’s an unusual way.

            That’s how it’s an unusual way of writing a novel. It sort of makes sense to include facts because this book does have to do a little bit with science but I don’t really think the author had to include facts every other chapter. I felt like it was a bit too much.

I wonder if any other author has used this technique in their writing. If they have what facts did they put in their book? Were the facts even related to the topic?