Innocence and Experience Essay Example for Free

Innocence and Experience Essay At one point in our lives we were all children, learning things about life, experiencing new things, and understanding life’s lessons. We were all naive and knew nothing about the world around us, we were all innocent to life and what it had to bring. It was not until we grew older that we began to lose our innocence with every new experience. Growing older means taking responsibility, accepting and overcoming life’s hardships and understanding oneself. So as we reach adulthood we begin to question when the conversion from innocence to experience occurs and what causes and marks this coming of age. In the novel They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky, the characters and plot prolong the opposition of innocence and experience and show us how they continuously overlap and occur throughout the lifetime of an individual. By analyzing the boy’s experiences of being refugees, their encounters with war, and their relationship and appreciation for the Dinkaland, we become aware of the connection between innocence and experience and how it is portrayed and represented in the novel. Starvation, isolationism, and confusion, are words we unknowingly associate with refugees. None of us can fully understand and begin to relate to the thoughts and emotions of refugees. Most of what we know has been through books or media where the hardship of refugee life is depicted as horrifying, desperate, and unresponsive. In They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, one of the main characters, Alepho depicts life as a refugee while giving us instances of experience where we are shown his loss of innocence. Through the text Alepho gives us a first hand account of his experience with being a refugee and how he has matured, transitioned into adulthood, and through all of this has ultimately been stripped of his innocence. â€Å" The Soldiers who came to camp always said, â€Å"You know, I think there will be peace. † But although people always hoped and prayed for peace, peace never came and we lost hope† (Deng 271). Not only does this show how through their experiences they realize peace will never come but also how they have given up on hoping for a better future. Their innocence has been lost through every thought of hope that has never been achieved. At only a young age Alepho and the other boys have already experienced so much devastation, corruption and loneliness, leaving only their childhood memories as a connection to their innocence. Not only did being a refugee leave mental scars but it also had a lasting impact on their physical well-being. â€Å"Being a refugee is something that many people cannot understand. Refugee life was like being devoured by wild animals. We lived five of us in one house. The little ration we received we collected together and cooked as a meal once a day. Though we had an appetite there wasn’t enough to eat as young growing boys with tender bones and body. Nutritional diseases were rampant in the camp. Children died from marasmas, kwashiorkor, anemia, and beriberi. Rickets was the worst with the young boys; almost every boy was bow-legged. It was hard for boys to go to school with empty stomachs. An empty stomach cannot carry a healthy mind† (Deng 274). This depicts a more vivid picture of what refugee life was like and how impacting it was to their health. They became famished, and their health was slowly deteriorating with every meal that they skipped, and every disease acquired. As a result, we see how at such a young age the boys life was corrupted and how they had to experience things that most people don’t experience in a lifetime. Starvation, devastation, and loneliness, were the only things we as children saw in movies or games, we could never imagine ever experiencing it first hand. The boys were stripped of their innocence as children, grown to be familiar with an empty stomach, separated from their family, and above all had no place to truly call home. Through each experience they faced they lost all ties to their innocence and were forced to mature in a world of corruption, and isolationism. We have all heard the word war, whether through textbooks in school, or stories passed down from our grandparents. We have all been some what introduced to the concept of war, World War I and II, Vietnam, The Civil War, and the current Middle Eastern War, are just some of the wars we have been taught about. However, none of us have experienced the horrific emotions, and psychological pain that comes along with being involved in war. We all know adults or friends who have served for our country, but what we are not familiar with are children who have been forced into war by means of cruelty. In the novel, the young boys are taken from their homes and forced into war, and the life of a refugee. â€Å" But I didn’t understand this complicated war, how it mortally devoured the land and left it so full of skeletons. The adults talked of the war all the time. They discussed slavery, apartheid, racism, segregation, and tribalism. They called it a religious war. A jihad. I heard all the words but I didn’t understand them. I think kids feel differently about things than adults do. From what I could see men or woman, children or adults, young or aged, rich or poor, war was making everyone equal† (Deng 123). This shows how the boys are naive and innocent to the war, and the reasoning and purpose of it, but this innocence is soon lost when the boys experience death of friends and family, life of a refugee, and the horrors of war. The boys are innocent in the fact that they do not understand the concept or reason for war but their experience throughout it show they have fully made the transition from innocence to experience or childhood to adulthood. Throughout the book we see how the boys show experience over innocence but when it comes to understanding war, and what causes it, the boys immaturity comes through. â€Å"We said that a lot. As children, seven or eight years old, we knew nothing about the world, just that we were not in our mama’s house no more† (Deng 123). The boys are so innocent to the world around them and what’s going on, that all they do know is that things have changed and they are not home anymore. At one point in the novel the boys experienced innocence. They were so naive to not only the world, but also to the concept of war. However, as we become more familiar with the boys and follow them on their endeavors as refugees we can see how through their experiences their innocence was lost. Family and friends, are something most of us take for granted, the thought of loosing them is indescribable. Family and friends are to most of us, the most structured and important relationships in our lives. Family is what helps you overcome difficulties, and friends are there to share laughs and build memories with. In some cases people have lost family members due to serious illness or other circumstances but very few to almost none in our society have been taken away from their families and community to be refugees of war. Alepho, Benjamin and Benson have all been taken away from their family and Dinkaland, and forced to be refugees of war. â€Å"Since my wandering began, there hasn’t been a day or night that I do not think back to my family, our people and lovely Dinkaland† (Deng 3). The boys have been taken away from their home and familiar way of life, to become refugees of the war. The boy’s loss of innocence is shown through every thought of family and home. They are so young and have been taken out of their familiar way of life to live a life of corruption and unfamiliarity. Through this we see how experience has a drastic effect on ones innocence, and we see through every experience the boy’s lose a touch of innocence. â€Å"When I sometimes have nightmares about all the things that happened when our peaceful village life turned to chaos, that feeling of not being able to move during my initiation still overcomes me† (Deng 10). This shows Alepho’s response to the war and when it finally arrived to their time. The memories of that day still haunt him, and overpower him with fear. One can say that this is the first time the boys innocence is lost and the last time we see his total state of innocence. This quote helps depict Alephos attitude and how much of a drastic affect it has on him. From their experiences, the boys lose their naivety and begin their world of maturity and responsibilities where they learn from experience, and ultimately make the transition from innocence to experience. In our society today events and cultural celebrations mark the coming of age such as birthdays, Sweet Six-teens, Graduation, and the ability to vote. Today age eighteen marks the beginning of adulthood where childhood becomes a thing of the past and society expects you to begin to take responsibility and show maturity in not only the choices you make, but also the actions you engage in. However as we can see in the novel They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, Alepho, Benjamin, and Benson have all shown maturity through their experiences and consequently a loss of innocence. Through reading their stories and analyzing the text we can see how the boys experience in war, being a refugee, and their appreciation for the Dinkaland has forced them into the transition from innocence to experience, at such a young age. Ultimately we are shown that innocence and experience are directly related, with experience we lose innocence and with our innocence we are more vulnerable to experiences that will shape our lives. Both of these entities continuously overlap and often reoccur through out the life of an individual.