Chapter 7: Beginning of Life, End of Life: Examining Online Memorials of Children in Sites of Armed Conflict

Children in armed conflict sites exist as a representative of the beginning of life in a space that serves as a constant reminder of the end of life. When children die in these spaces, they become representatives of the pervasive death that looms in and around armed conflict sites. Narrating children through online memorials is one way in which to breathe life back into these children and highlight the atrocities in armed conflict spaces. Looking specifically at the Syrian Civil War, this piece examined English language memorials for children who have died in the Syrian Civil War to understand narrative similarities and differences. The authors first hypothesized that regardless of the post, children were regarded with positive language, as established by previous child memorial research. Second, we hypothesized that there could be some noticeable differences in who’s to blame for the children’s death in two main ways: blaming the regime of Bashar Al-Assad or the Armed Syrian Opposition. Despite focusing on memorials about children, children were missing from the memorials (Theme A: Where Are the Children?). Ever present in the memorials was the conflict between Bashar Al-Assad and the Armed Syrian Opposition (Theme B: Blame Game: Bashar Al-Assad and the Armed Syrian Opposition). This chapter expanded the research areas of online narratives, children in armed conflict sites, and the end-of-life topic area.