Restaging of State Terror and Atrocities in Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone

Abstract

This research paper analyses how government restages the state terror and atrocities in A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah. Beah faced the dark face of the government during wartime when he was only thirteen years old. Being a part of a war at thirteen makes no good for children. Many children became combat at the age of thirteen which became the reason of destroy their future. Government plays the role in recruiting children in such civil war though that is illegal according to human rights. This research paper has shown the dark side of the government in wartime and the obstacles where many children had to sacrifice their childhood at the time. This research paper reveals the issue of the futility of the war where the strong party of the state misused their power over innocent civilians and especially the children who are under age for taking part in such a vulgar civil war. Ishmael Beah mentioned that recruiting children as a soldier to defeat the war is useless.Here I have examined the text in the light of Giorgio Agamben`s stasis (civil war as a paradigm), which helps me to explain how the government easily creat the condition in the state by changing the law of the state where citizen`s life turned into the pain and sorrow. Emanual Levinas's concept of face-to-face relation (coined in the text Totality and Infinity (1969), has helped me to relate the events where people forget their responsibility to others because of the bad effect of the war which took place in the state after wrong decision-making of the government. Sidonie Smith's “Autobiographical subjectivity” is the only way to express the experience of the victim through writing. So, through the help ofautobiographical subjectivity, Ishmael Beah expressed his war experience where he worked as great combat of his troops and in the end he got nothing.