Beasts of No Nation Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

Beasts of No Nation, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, tells the tale of a young African boy

named Agu who is forced into war at a young age. The film is a great illustration of ‘Coming of

age’. Showing how individuals can be forced to grow up, through troubling experiences

especially. Onto Beasts of No Nation, Children being forced into war is a hard concept to think

about, though it is nothing new. Children have been forced into war as far as the ancient Greek

time, when their youth were being trained into Spartans as young as seven years old.

Unfortunately, children in present times are not yet safe from battle. Many countries in

Africa and the middle east are forcing their next generation into the hardships of war. The

narrative shares the ‘Coming of age’ theme with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and is well

displayed. On the battlefield, no man or woman could hope to prepare themselves for what is yet

to come. Most ages in war can lead to ‘Coming of age’, however, at the stage of being a child, a

drastic change of their aspect on life is without a doubt inevitable. In William Golding’s Lord of

the Flies, the boys are stranded on an island and are left to fend for themselves, they are well in

similar circumstances with Agu. To conclude, Beasts of No Nation (Fukunaga) and Lord of the

Flies (Golding) show many instances of Coming of age.

When Agu agreed to leave his father and go into hiding, it was later on that he met a

group of soldiers. The soldiers that Agu had ran into forced him against his will to join their

rebellion. The initiation rite given by the rebellion commander was Agu having to take his first

innocent life. This is one of few events in Agu’s story that displays ‘Coming of Age’. “The

world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.” (Golding) This quote from the

novel Lord of the Flies demonstrates how the boys had a similar situation that Agu was in. The

boys on the island were quite separated from civilization, however, Agu was getting farther from

being civilized. At first, Agu was an innocent and harmless young boy, same with the boys on

the island. Taking a life is out of the ordinary for Agu and Roger’s age and is something that will

indeed change you forever.

In Beasts of No Nation, there is a commandant of the rebellion that shows empathy for no

man. The commandant is an arrogant dictator who leads his men through villages, raiding and

destroying them whilst taking innocent lives. The commandant manifests discourtesy towards the

child soldiers. He rapes them as if they are not humans. He treats them as objects, using them to

his own satisfaction. Agu is one of the victims of the commandant’s terrible doings. This act

makes Agu realize the beast and evil that are inside everybody. At young ages, it is normal for

people to assume that everybody is in the path of good, the reality of evil approaches later in life

and Agu unfortunately getting raped is a good example of that.“Maybe… Maybe there is a beast.

What I mean is, maybe it's only us.” (Golding) This quote from Lord of the Flies demonstrates

‘Coming of age’ by the realization of the evil that everybody possesses inside of them. Agu

realized this thoroughly through his experiences of being in the rebellion that he was forced into.

The boys

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