How Imperialism Affects Identity

Today there are many things that can impact someone’s identity. Imperialism is the ideology of extending a country’s power and influence through military force. Consumerism is another ideology that is the belief that it is good for people to spend large amounts of money on goods and services. Consumerism affects one identity because it leads to people believing that money is everything and that it is okay to buy things without hesitation; although imperialism contributes to one's identity the most out of the others because it leads to war, and changes one's country/nation.

The book A Long Way Gone is a memoir about a boy soldier named Ishmael Beah, that lived in Sierra Leone, Africa. He lived a normal life going to school and playing soccer with his friends. In his village there was an attack from the Rebels which ended up having him and his family get split up during the attack. He then runs off into the forest and finds some kids that went to his school and they stick together to be a group. They travel for many days to only be captured by nearby Rebels that then take them in as prisoners to their camp.

They then start to become rebel warriors but do not want to be one. Therefore …show more content…
In the article The Emotional Effects of War on Soldiers, written by Stan Tian, he writes “The emotional effects of war on soldiers very often hinders their future achievements too as they find it impossible to imagine or plan. Veterans of war who experience PTSD without adequate counseling and care often do not marry or have children, perhaps because they have experienced near death and have severe difficulty letting go of the idea that they may die any day” (Tian). The soldiers that return are emotionally scared, they have recurring flashbacks of their time in war. They can't have kids or pets because they are afraid of losing another being, they are unable to have the same security about someone than before they were sent off to