A Long Walk To Water Analysis

the small village of Loun-Ariik in Southern Sudan. Salva and his family are part of the Dinka tribe. Salva is a smart, happy boy who has just started to attend school. One day as he is daydreaming in class gunshots erupt outside the schoolhouse and Salva runs into the bush to escape the fighting between the government forces and the rebels. Salva walks with a group of other people who are fleeing the fighting, moving further and further away from his home and his family. Eventually the group is joined by his Uncle Jewiir, who becomes the group's leader. At one point while walking through the Akobo Desert Salva begins to lose hope, and Uncle Jewiir teaches him a lesson about setting and accomplishing small, manageable goals and never giving

He also lives in poverty. An example of him living in poverty would be that he doesn’t have shoes. As seen when the book states, “Salva stubbed his bare toe on a rock, and his whole toenail came off” (Parks 53). Providing an image of him not having shoes and hitting a rock with his toenail coming off. He had to keep walking in the hot sand with his barefoot. Here in the united states the fact that his toenail came off may not be a big deal but having to walk miles with a fallen toenail makes things much worse.

Another important survival factor that Salva had to do to survive was to be stronger physically and mentally. Salva was getting stronger physically and mentally by not only his friend and his uncle dead but also the attitude that the group give to Salva which made Salva to feel physically and mentally stronger “Marial was gone. Uncle was gone, too, murdered by those Nuer men right before Salva’s eyes. Marial and

Perseverance is an important theme in A Long Walk To Water. The first example of Perseverance is when Salva listens to what his uncle says. His uncle uses his full name, and Salva thinks of his family. Uncle tells him to only walk as far as that bush, or clump of rocks. Salva perseveres by thinking of his family. By thinking of his family, Salva is able to keep walking even though he’s tired, thirsty, hungry, and his feet hurt. The second example of Perseverance is when Salva is in the refugee camp. He hates the refugee camp and wants to get out of there. “I only need to get through the rest of this day, he told himself. This day and no other.” (pg 73) This shows that Salva is persevering because even though he hates the refugee camp, he

A major theme in the true story, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park is perseverance. Perseverance is to stay steady in what you are doing or in a purpose, especially when you are faced with difficulties. This is a perfect theme for A Long Walk to Water because the main character, Salva Dut, an 11 year old Sudanese boy, faced many difficulties and kept going. He took things ‘bit by bit, one step at a time’, a lesson he learned from his uncle that helped him get through the desert, and he applied it to his life and kept going and believing his family was alive. Even though he almost died many times, he did not give up, and he went back to his home country and helped many people have better lives by building wells and giving them clean drinking water. Another character in this book is Nya, an eleven year old Sudanese girl, who has to walk eight hours every day to get water for her family. She always keeps going, even though the way is hard because it is hot and the ground hurts to walk on.

After reading the book, readers can see that one of the main factors for Salvas survival is hard work. Salva gets water and does housework for the old woman he considers family. In the text it states “He worked hard so she would not send him away.” (18) Salva worked hard, to have a place to stay during the fighting. Salva helped with the boats so he could get over the river faster. The text explains “It was hard work running back and forth between those cutting and those weaving.” (43) This means Salva is an achiever because instead of not helping because he was a child, he helped all the adults and got reeds. Salva leads a group of thousands of boys to Kenya with his dedication and determination. The text states “I will get us safely to Kenya, he thought. No matter how hard it is” (81) This demonstrates Salva being a hard-worker because he is helping thousands of boys cross to Kenya. Salva’s labor shows he will do anything to survive, and nothing will stop him.

Salva’s relationships with other people along the way helped him to survive. Salva was left behind in a barn alone, and he befriended an older woman and helps out with chores. He sleeps ‘in the woman’s barn again that night...he fetched...water from the pond.’ (17-18) This shows how mature Salva truly is as he refrains from causing the

The first peice of evidence is when He joins another group of Dinka refugees to continue his journey”Then he caught up with the group, determined not to lag behind, not to complain, not to be trouble to anyone.’ (22) , This quote shows that because the group is Dinka they let him in. Another peice of evidence is that Salva stayed by his uncles side“I am sorry salva he said quitly your friend….”(38) . This quote showes that because Marial did not stay close to the group he got eaten by lions. The last peice of evidence is when he became friends with Marial. “Im Marial”,It was good to make a friend”(30) . This quote showes that Marial helped him get comfortoble. In conclusion, it was very clear that relationships with family and tribesmen helped him get through Salva hard

For example, they hide during the day and walk during the night and they don’t see a lot of war. On page 82 the book states “The fighting and the bombing were worst during the day, so Salva decided that the group should hide when the sun shone and do their walking at night.” (page 80) “More than twelve hundred boys arrived safely. It took them a year and a half.” This shows that Salva and the young men/young boys really know how to survive during war time. Secondly, Salva finds a nice women who feeds him but she also make him do chores for her in exchange for food. On page 15 the book reads “Holding his breathe, he crept closer, until he could see her face clearly. The ritual scar patterns on her forehead looked familiar. They were Dinka patterns, which meant that she was from the same tribe as Salva.” This shows that because Salva was a child and “too” small to do any real work his fellow Dinka village people left him alone but Salva perseveres and finds a women to help him. Lastly, Salva did what his Uncle Jewiir did and said to himself I only have to get through this day. On page 73 the book states “I need only to get through the rest of this day he told himself. This day and no other.” This also shows Salva likes to persevere in hard times and tell himself just to get through that one day and no other. In all we can conclude that in the book A Long Walk To Water, main character Salva Dut must use perseverance to survive during and after the second Sudanese Civil

For example, Salva helps, Uncle Jewiir build canoes to safely cross the river. This is because the novel states- “It was hard work running back and forth between those cutting and those weaving… was better than doing nothing.”(43-44).This means that they have to work safely, fast and efficiently because there could be rebels anywhere. Secondly, Salva has to go to the desert, because he wants to flee the war in Sudan. “The first day in the desert felt like the longest day… and it was time to rest.” (53-54) This means that he will have to go to the desert with a little amount of water, he will have to save it in order to get enough energy to . Thirdly, he was efficient when he was leading the group from Ethiopia to Kenya. It stated in the text- “I will get us safely to to Kenya… He organized the group, giving everyone a job… whatever food or water found was shared equally among them.”(81) Overall, without efficiency Salva would not have survived the

“ Uncle much know about the war and the fighting! Maybe he will know where my family is”(Park 34). This quote shows that how Salva was so lucky when he meet his uncle. Because he uncle was a leader, he had a gun, and he can protect him. And Salva was saved when he lived with his uncle. One days, Salva uncle decided to return back to the refugee camps in Sudan to fight. But before he get to the camps he was killed. Salva and others people move to a new camps. It’s not easy to get into new camps because they are in war zone. When they go to the new camp they don’t have enough food so they were so hungry and tried. Some are get really weak and they can’t even get in camp, but some are get weak but they don’t give up and they get to a new

Many times has Savlas uncles words helped him through hopeless times. Salvas uncles words had encouraged Salva to go “ bit by bit, one step at a time”, so Salva thought, “ Perhaps…perhaps Salva could get through life at the camp in the way.” (72) As a result that Salva feels this way he is being encouraged by his uncles’ words, so that makes Salva feel stronger in a way. His uncle’s words help Salva, and encourage him through many of his challenges. Also in the book Salva remembers, “Most of all, he remembered how Uncle had encouraged him in the desert,”when all seemed lost. (81) Again we are reminded how Salva’s Uncles words have encouraged him, through the many harsh challenges Salva has went through. These words that Salvas uncle said is used for Salva when he is feeling down or discouraged. When Salva felt hopeless he would “ take a deep breath and think of his uncle’s words,” and this would help Salva regain focus and hope. (110) This text evidence shows when Salva would lose hope or was stressed he would deal with it by using his uncles words. Through all of these challenges Salva used his uncles words to encourage him again and again, when Salva was losing

I think that his journey to Ethiopia will go smoother because now he has a friend by his side. Both Marial and Salva, both have someone to not only rely on, but also just have a friend to talk to on the journey. In the book, they even work well together because it says that they found a bee hive together causing them to not only get honey, but to get the honeycomb. Together the honeycomb and honey are delicious, and can last 3-4 days to eat if you eat it slowly, which Salva did. Marial is also without his family, so they are both worried about maybe never seeing their families again.

In the beginning of the story, Salva is dependent on other people in the Dinka tribe to survive his journey to find out if his family is alive. Such as having the old Dinka woman to give him food and shelter, and depending on his uncle to teach him to protect himself from lions, or even depending on his uncle for food.

Even though Salva had almost no food, water, shelter, and shoes he still used his mental toughness. His mental toughness allowed him to keep going and try harder. When he was separated from his family and had no clue if he was going to survive, yet he kept trying.