A Long Walk to Water is a remarkable story written by Linda Sue Park. The genre of this book is nonfiction, and the theme of this story is hope. Hope is an interesting topic for this book because two children from different time periods show this theme. Nya is an eleven year old girl who lives in the time period of 2008-2009. She walks for water everyday. Salva, however is different from Nya. He lives in the time period of 1985- 2007. He is a “lost boy,” or a refugee who ran because of the war. Both of these characters exemplify a kind of hope. The hope they share is the one that keeps you going in times of difficulty. Nya is an eleven year old girl whose events happened in the time period of 2008-2009. She deals with the problem of carrying …show more content…
In the book, he finds his uncle and is overjoyed to see him. He says, ““Uncle!” He cried out, and ran into the man’s arms” When Salva finds Uncle, he thinks that he knows where his family, he gets disappointed when Uncle tells him that he doesn’t know where his family is. In this section, Salva shows the same hope as Nya did with the muddy water. Salva hoped to find his family, but is disappointed and grieved when he finds out the opposite of what he wants to hear. The last time Salva shows hope is in Rochester, New York. When he finished a long day, he sat down and looked at his e-mail. Surprisingly, he found out that his father was alive. In the book, his cousin says this, “...United Nations Clinic… your father… stomach surgery.” Salva finds out that his father is still alive, but in a grave condition. This shows a desperate kind of hope because Salva hopes that his father can be healthy and live. Salva showed two kinds of hope in this book that were very surprising. The first one was determination. Salva never stopped hoping that he could find his family again someday. The next one was love. He loved his loved ones and his friend, Marial. He cared for them and wanted to protect them. At the end, Salva realized that some people have to die to keep you going. Uncle and Marial died for Salva to find his family again. Salva shows types of hope to help him
Salva lived under the image of his whole family being killed, until he found his father many years later. Salva, the main character in Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water is able to survive and overcome a variety of challenges through being efficient, intelligent , and by listening to the group's leaders. Salva survives the first few challenges because, he was extremely Intelligent. For example he ran into the bush to escape the gunfire.
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.
This shows Salva is mature because Salva didn't give up being the leader and made the group organized and was kind to people even though they did something bad. The author wrote “The time for grief was short, and the walking began soon after dark” (65). This shows Salva is mature because he's being upset and just moving on instead of being someone who is not mature and focusing on what happened to Marial and Uncle and staying upset about it. Salva is more mature than most
When the war started affecting Salva and his village it became apparent to him that he may never see his family again. “If I die now, I will never see my family again.” (11) This thought helped Salva strengthen and have the instinct to survive so he could see his family again, which is one of the reasons he did survive. Not only did he think he would never see his family again, but he became friends with Marial, a boy from the group he was in, who was soon taken away from him as well.
A very important theme in the book A Long Walk to Water is perseverance. The first example that perseverance is an important theme is how Nya walks back and forth to a faraway pond 2 times a day, every day, for seven months a year without stopping. Also, on the path, there are thorns everywhere that are painful to remove. Nya only gets a small bit of water and rest even though it is very hot and dry. Even the water that Nya gets with much pain and suffering is muddy and infected with Guinea Worms.
(pg 73) This shows that Salva is persevering because even though he hates the refugee camp, he
To sum up, Salva did make it through the stressful journey, Salva has been back and forth visiting his biological family and his forster family that lives in New York.. This journey lead him to the person he is today by inspiring people to not give up on a dream or idea they had. Today Salva is continuing a program for South Sudan “ Water For South Sudan” which builds wells in different villages in South
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. One example of hope and perseverance in A Long Walk to Water is how Salva never gives up. He is forced to leave his home and family in southern Sudan when his school is attacked, and goes on a long,
It was almost as if they had left their strength with him, to help him on his journey.” Another example is “ So he had to shake the fear of to continue the journey” These examples prove that Salva was determined because he knew that his family would want him to make the trip.
Salva’s labor shows he will do anything to survive, and nothing will stop him. Once Salva started walking, another factor of his survival kicked in, He was a very lucky young boy. Salva was very fortunate because he didn’t get shot or attacked by crocodiles. In the text it states “Stunned, Salva realized that being forced under the water had
Both the characters care deeply for their family and when something goes wrong they are both challenged to go on with their day sick with worry. Though they both care for their family , Nya has her family with her to support her emotionally but Salva only has his uncle who can’t provide answers for whether or not his family is okay or if they’ll ever see them again. Nya and Salva don’t only struggle with emotional challenges but physical as well. Both characters walk to the point of physical pain, on pg (53) Salva stubs his toe and his entire toenail gets ripped off, even in immense pain he is forced to keep walking past a row of bushes just
Salva is a survivor because he didn't get defeated by any of the animals, he almost got killed many times, and because his environment was very harsh. One factor that proved Salva is a survivor is because he didn't get defeated by all of the animals he crossed on his journey. Many people died while trying to cross the river because of the vicious crocodiles eating them and trying to kill them. “Later, he would learn that at least a thousand people had died trying to cross the river that day, drowned or shot, or attacked by .crocodiles”(79).
The pain was terrible Salva tried to bite his lip, that never- ending day was too much for him (53). .Another way Salva showed strength is when he lost his family but still kept going. He thought about them often. As Salva walked the same a thought came to his head. ‘’ where is my family? ‘’When will I see them again’’
While his uncle was alive, he helped Salva do everything throughout the journey. Even when he died nobody forgot him and Salva’s memory of his loving uncle gave him the strength to finish the journey. Food and water was the most important factor that led to his survival. He knew that there was barely any water in the desert and that it was hard to find food which taught him to treasure everything he was given. Throughout the book we are led to believe that Salva’s parents and siblings had passed away but he never lost hope that they were still alive.
Salva was thrown straight on into the Sudanese war to fend for himself, so he was all alone without his family. Later on Salva realizes what has happened