Everything Means Nothing If There Isn't Happiness

In the book "Nothing," by Janne Teller, Agnes' class searches for the meaning of everything after Pierre Anthon says that nothing has meaning.  While Pierre sat in a tree hollering at them, her class decided to make a pile of meaning.  Each person would demand something important from someone, such as their shoes, and then that person would demand something from the next person.  However, by the end, they had grave robbed someone's little brother, cut off a finger, killed a dog, and more.  Things just got more gruesome as they went along, and they were all unhappy with their losses.  However, they were only doing this to feel content with themselves that there was actually a meaning to life and the world in general.  I believe that they shouldn't have made themselves miserable.  I think that the true meaning of anything shouldn't be fought over if nobody is happy.  To me enjoying what you have is the most important thing in life.

I think that happiness is more important than stressing over the meaning of everything because of what it led the kids in Agnes' class to do.  Almost every person cried or was miserable after they had to give up something.  For example, Ann Li cried when she had to give up her pet hamster, who ended up dying.  Holy Karl had to go against his religion and steal the statue of Jesus from the Church.  In the end, his parents said he wasn't a good Christian, and the book described him as one who appeared to have lost everything.  Unfortunately, after months os sacrifice and suffering, Pierre said the pile was a bunch of junk!  In fact, they were even going to sell the pile to a museum.  I think that all of those months could have been used for the class to enjoy their childhood.  Instead they saw and did things that were unnecessary and led them to no success.  In conclusion, I think that happiness and enjoying life is way too important to waste.  It is also something you can't put a price on, like they did for their pile.  I just didn't understand why they put so much tears into something that could probably never be answered.  This draws me to the conclusion that happiness is the true meaning of life, and overcomes everything else.

Victims

Child soldiers ages eighteen and under is a problem discussed all around the world.  Unfortunately most of them are fourteen or younger.  The articles “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, “Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman and a documentary, a CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, explain the life, dangers, and misfortune of child soldiers.  They give details about how the children were forced or tricked into service, how they were manipulated and/or brainwashed while in service, and how they were traumatized after they were released from the army.   Although some might say child soliers are perpetrators, I see them as victims.

One reason child soldiers are victims is because they were forced and tricked into service without choice.  For example, in the article “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, a boy from Liberia who had experienced this was interviewed.  He said, “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.”  This directly shows one way how many child soldiers were forced into service.  It also shows the boy had no choice because the people would probably kill him too if he did otherwise. He also had nowhere to go because his family was dead.  In the CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, Beah explained, “We thought if we went to the military base we would be protected.  That was not the case.”  The army gave them false impressions that ended up in Beah becoming a child soldier.  Both Beah and the other boy who was interviewed, tell us that child soldiers are victims because they were forced or tricked into service without choice.

Another reason child soldiers are victims is because they were manipulated and/or brainwashed to be killers while in service.  For example, in the CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, he discussed what it was like to be part of the army and kill people.  “You’ve lost yourself.  It completely becomes your life.  You have to do it to survive,” he said.  He was manipulated by fear of being killed if he didn’t cooperate.  Beah also talked about how the soldiers were manipulated into drugs by the commanders, in order not to fully comprehend the awful things they were doing.  In the article “Armed and Underage,” by Jeffrey Gettleman, it said that in the 1980s, an army from Iran gave “12 to 16 year old boys ‘keys to heaven’ to hang around their necks as they cleared minefields during the Iran-Iraq war.”  These keys were meant to “protect them,” but this just shows how child soldiers were brainwashed into thinking that they were protected or doing the right thing. Through these examples, it is shown that child soldiers are victims because they were manipulated and brainwashed to kill while in service.

A final reason child soldiers are victims is because they were traumatized afterwards.  For example, in the article “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, it said, “Girl soldiers are often singled out for sexual abuse, even by their own commanders, and have a harder time integrating back into society at wars end.” I feel utterly horrified that these girls were emotionally damaged to the extent that it was difficult to go back to society!  When Ishmael Beah was interviewed, he said that after UNICEF rescued him, he’d turn on the shower, but see only blood.  This is an example of mental trauma that many of the soldiers faced afterwards.  I feel that it’s very difficult to hear about how these people’s childhoods were ruined, and the rest of their lives affected because they were child soldiers.  In the end, child soldiers are victims because they were traumatized after they fought as child soldiers.

In conclusion, because child soldiers are forced or tricked into servitude, manipulated and brainwashed while in service and traumatized after they were released from the army, they are victims.  Some may still argue that they are perpetrators because they killed people, and that’s a crime.  However, I believe they say this because they are looking at these children from the outside.  Instead, they should imagine what it would be like to face all of those horrors (that were really in the hands of those who captured them) at such a young age, and then come out of it traumatized and charged as a criminal.  Hopefully then, those who believe these child soldiers are perpetrators would realize that they are truly victims.