In the most recent section of the memoir, it has become clear how the children devolve once they have become soldiers. I wrongly assumed that the children, despite their “initiation” still feel immense resistance to fighting and killing. However, Beah shows that while he may have felt this way for a few days, it quickly subsides. He writes that before his first ‘battle,’ he would get constant migraines and sometime be so petrified that even the smallest of noises would startle him. After his first battle though, he explains that his attitude towards death and killing became almost mechanic, such that he felt no emotion or remorse upon ending a life.
In my research of Invisible Children and the entire issue of child soldiers as a whole, I have come to understand that this issue extends far beyond itself, with problems such as HIV, poverty, and hunger crises stemming from it. A Long Way Gone also explores the role played by drugs in this war. Beah writes about how, in an effort to cope with and simply survive the fighting he was forced to endure, he and the other soldiers would snort cocaine, brown brown (a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder), smoke marijuana, and take powerful painkillers. Although he was only thirteen when he was a child soldier, Beah admits to having been addicted to both cocaine and painkillers at that age, simply because of how readily available they were made to him. When he recounts a particular time when he simultaneously took high amounts of the aforementioned drugs, he writes that his heart would rapidly palpitate and he would break out into heavy sweats. Not only did this section of the memoir make me realize how mentally and emotionally abusive this practice of taking child soldiers can be, but I also noted how many residual effects (ie: drug addiction) are caused by this issue.
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