The loss of innocence of a childMany children around the world have encountered or are currently facing internal conflicts within their region which can cause much harm not only their physical bodies but also their emotional well-being. -be. In Ishmael Beah's illuminating memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah explores the idea that atrocities in the world can traumatically affect a child's life by causing a loss of innocence in the child, and Beah does this through his use of imagery, flashbacks, and characterization. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Atrocities in the world can affect a child's life by causing a loss of innocence in the child. Unfortunately, a child from a certain part of the world, like Beah, may find it difficult to face the conflict going on in his country face to face, and that conflict may include either a civil war or even a revolution against his country . own government. As a child, Beah was exposed to the civil war in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is his birthplace. At a young age, it was difficult for him to understand things and his “emotions were in disarray” (86). It is difficult at the start of a war, like the civil war in Sierra Leone, for a child to fully understand what is happening. Usually a child Beah's age hangs around his house, helps his parents, and lives the life of a student by participating in school, so seeing dead people the child knows or doesn't know in the field can sure to be upsetting, and he may react the same way as Beah. The different types of reactions are something to be expected from a child with such innocence, and because of this loss, most children grow up to be evil or mentally insane, and some don't bother to readjust. It's very upsetting, but it's true. Beah's use of imagery throughout his memoir helps illustrate to the reader the daily struggles that a child striving to survive the civil war in Sierra Leone would have faced. Many of these struggles include the worst of all: thinking, dreaming, imagining. Countless times, from childhood to the present, "[through his] mind [he] saw sparks of flame, flashes of scenes [that] he had witnessed, and the anguished voices of children and women came to life in [his] head. [He] cried softly as [his] head pounded like the clapper of a bell. Sometimes, after the migraine stopped, [he] managed to fall asleep briefly, only to be awakened by nightmares” (103). It is unfortunate that the child who witnesses the war does not have the opportunity to keep the innocent dreams in his head that he wants to remember and ends up with a head full of the previously mentioned types. will always look for things to help forget the reality from the child's mind. If the child's family dies, then the child will always try to keep the happy memories of the time spent together in his or her mind, otherwise the child would probably not want to think about his or her family at all. The child would envy another child who still had a family to run away to because he had no one to run away to and had to do everything for himself and by himself. Sometimes these memories are of moments when the child enjoyed a day that he wishes would happen again and again now that he can no longer see his loved ones. For example, when Beah's grandmother first told him that she was like the moon, he didn't really try to understand what she meant until later, but "..