A long way gone 'Ishmael Beah and Allegory of the cave Plato's Essay

A long way gone 'Ishmael Beah and Allegory of the cave Plato's - Essay Example In this article, I will use the two texts, Allegory of the Cave by Plato and A long Way Gone’ by Ishmael Beah to justify the statement ‘can childhood ever be lost beyond recovery?’ The childhood ages are characterized by innocence of the mind and soul. Children are notable for being able to express their feelings and emotions in a manner that is straight, often hiding nothing compared to the older generations where hypocrisy characterizes most of their talks and manner of expressions. In his Memoir, Ishmael creates his protagonist; a child aged 12 years of age at the beginning of the story. Ishmael at this age has an innocent mind of a child making him central to the flow of the story. Living in a country rocked with war and violence due to the locals’ invasion by the country rebels, the young boy is forced to join the militia forces in order to fight and be able to defend himself and those close to him. Alongside other young boys from his tiny village in Sierra Leone, Ishmael, while traversing the lonely war torn fields develop feelings and emotions that derails him completely of his innocent childhood feelings. He looses his innocence in the field as he comes into close encounter with the war atrocities. Killing, sights of blood and dead people all around him becomes his usual norm in his war days. Contrary to the feelings of childhood that is free from crimes and the normalcy of reveling in criminal offences, Ishmael totally loose his childhood innocence and becomes a child combatant. However, the even as Ishmael revels in war and engages in serial killings as a combatant, his childhood likings such as the love for rap music remain his most revered hobby. Even though his present perception is derailed by the events encountered during combat, his childhood perception of life, far from that of evil combat remains and when this is discovered, he