Salva’s Journey Through the Sudanese Civil War
The African state of Sudan was plagued by a civil war as written about in Linda Sue Park’s “A Long Walk to Water.” This book follows a boy named Salva from present day South Sudan. The book starts in 1985 when Salva is 11 years old. Salva is a survivor. He endured the Civil war, Dangerous African Wilds, and the Gilo River.
The first major thing that troubled Salva was the Civil War. It led to an attack on his school, soldiers recruiting people from his group, and it also set his group on the run. While in class Salva’s teacher told them, “Go Quickly, all of you! Into the bush, do you hear me? Not home, DO NOT run home stay away from the villages.”(6). While retreating from the village his school
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was in a bomb fell upon it destroying it. After running from his village he merged with many other people to form a larger group. This group was soon found by the rebels who rounded up all the men and forced them to join them. Anybody who refused was punished, “Salva watched as one man protested that he did not want to go with the rebels. A soldier hit him in the face with the butt of a gun. The man fell to the ground, bleeding”(12). All this fighting forced Salva to group up with others and run from his home. “Everyone worked quickly, although there was no way of knowing whether they had to hurry or not, no way of knowing how near the war was. The fighting could be miles away-or a plane carrying bombs could fly overhead at any moment”(43). That is how the Civil war directly affected Salva, however it also led to indirect suffering. Another major thing Salva and the group survived were the dangerous wilds of Africa. They encountered many animals such as lions, bees, and crocodiles. The Bees were the first animals they had come across. Shortly after fleeing his village Salva joined a group of survivors headed east. In the forest they discovered a Beehive “He pointed up at the branches of the tree ‘Beehive. A fine large one’”(25). The second kind of animal him and his group encountered were lions. During their journey through Lion Country Salva’s best friend was eaten in the night. “Marial was gone-vanished into the night. He would never have wandered away from the group on his own. His disappearance could mean only one thing. Lion”(40). The third animal that troubled him were crocodiles. During the Gilo River crossing where he was forced to cross Crocodiles littered the water stealing people as they swam and devouring them. “The Salva saw the telltale flick of a crocodile’s tail as it flopped into the water near the young man. Moments later, the man’s head jerked oddly once-twice. His mouth was open. Perhaps he was screaming but Salva could not hear him”(77). That is how Animals conflicted Salva and proved his worth as a survivor. The final thing that proves that Salva is a survivor is the fact that he survived while he and many others were forced to cross the Gilo River.
Salva had many factors that spelled death for him here but he resisted. These such things included the firearms being shot into the group, the boy choking him and the immense current of the river that drowned many. The men that were sent by the new Ethiopian government to force all the refugees out of their country arrived at the camp en masse with guns and forced the people out. They led them to the Gilo River which was the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. Once the people got to the banks of the river the soldiers began shooting into the crowd. “The rain was still pouring down-and now bullets were pouring down as well. The soldiers started shooting into the river, aiming their guns at the people who were trying to get across”(78). A second thing that caused trouble for Salva while he tried to cross the Gilo was the small child who lept onto his back. “A boy next to him grabbed him around the neck and clung to him tightly. Salva was forced under the surface without time to take more than a quick, shallow breath”(78). The final thing that troubled Salva as he attempted to cross the River was the current. The current of the river was very strong while they tried to cross because it had been raining “Other people, afraid of the soldiers and their guns, were leaping into the water on their own. They were immediately swept downstream by the powerful
current”(77). Dangerous Wildlife, The Civil War, and The Gilo River are the 3 major things that Salva survived. Remember Salva’s story is true, and is depicted well in Linda Sue Park’s novel, “A Long Walk To Water”.
Tony Horwitz’s book titled, “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War” is about the crucial invasion in U.S. history that resulted the start of the Civil War and describes how John Brown helped plan the invasion of Virginia. At the start of the book, Horwitz begins with depicting John Brown’s early life including childhood to adulthood. John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in the unfriendly peaks of Torrington, Connecticut. When he was eight years old, his mother passed away which made him go through a drastic trauma such as feeling nervous and awkward towards other women.
Running away from your own family and town seems horrible but that’s just what Salva had to do. Salva is a Sudanese child who is stuck in the middle of a war against the Dinka and the Nuer tribe. Salva is the main character in Linda Sue Park’s novel A Long Walk to Water. The book describes the constant struggle of having to live where there is no water, or really bad, not clean, muddy water. The story shows how he ran away into the bush because of a war in his Village. It was not easy to find his family again after Salva ran away. While running from war, he is also separated from his family. Three factors helped Salva survive in a challenging environment, they are Water, his Uncle, and Hope.
The film God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary about the journey of a couple of Sudanese “lost boys” to their new lives in the United States. The film is divided in two parts. The first one gives the historical background of what led to the boys’ situation at the time the documentary was being filmed and what their lifestyle at Kakuma camp looks like. It starts by recounting the events that led up to the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983. The conflict was fought along ethno religious lines between the Muslim North and the non-Muslim South. By 1983, 27,000 people, including the lost boys, from the South were forced to flee as the Sudanese government, held in the hands by northerners, announced that all men in south should be killed regardless of age. After a short stay in an Ethiopian refugee camp, the boys finally arrived to Kakuma refugee
In 1992, the conflict of the Sudanese Civil War resulted in the mass migration of thousands of Sudanese boys. This huge group of children were without adult supervision and care, and they travelled a total of one thousand miles through the Sahara desert. Many of them died of starvation and exposure during their journey. They were given the name the Lost Boys.
The book ‘For Cause and Comrades’ is a journey to comprehend why the soldiers in the Civil War fought, why they fought so passionately, and why they fought for the long period of time. Men were pulling guns against other men who they had known their whole lives. McPherson’s main source of evidence was the many letters from the soldiers writing to home. One of the many significant influences was how the men fought to prove their masculinity and courage. To fight would prove they were a man to their community and country. Fighting also had to do with a duty to their family. Ideology was also a major motivating factor; each side thought they were fighting for their liberty. The soldier’s reputations were created and demolished on the battlefield, where men who showed the most courage were the most honored. Religion also played an important role because the second Great Awakening had just occurred. Their religion caused the men who thought of themselves as saved to be fearless of death, “Religion was the only thing that kept this soldier going; even in the trenches…” (McPherson, p. 76) R...
I was in the grips of genocide, and there was nothing I could do. Operation No Living Thing was put into full effect (Savage 33). The R.U.F., however, was not alone in servicing children as their own messengers of evil, the military group countering their acts of violence also had children fighting their battles. A Long Way Gone and The Bite of the Mango are eye-opening books because they give people all over the world a glimpse into the horrors kids in Africa face on a daily basis. However different Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah’s experiences were regarding their journeys and disabilities, they both exhibited the same extraordinary resilience in the end to better themselves, create futures they could be proud of, and make the best of what the war left them.
Horwitz begins his journey in the South, coinciding his trip with the dates of specific battles. After coming across many Civil War enthusiasts, he finds that the South has a very different perception of the battles and overall meaning of the war. There is still an "us against them" sentiment, as southerners continue to feel their way of life is threatened.
In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah deals with his loss of innocence as he is forced to join the children army of Sierra Leone in the country's civil war after being conscripted to the army that once destroyed his town in order for Ishmael to survive. His memoir acts as a voice to show the many difficulties that the members of Sierra Leone's child army had to suffer through and their day to day struggle to survive in the worst of conditions. In order to escape the perils and trials of war, Ishmael loses his innocence as he transitions from a child who liked to rap with his friends to a cold blooded solider in the army during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through his transition, Ishmael is forced to resort to the addiction of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and “brown-brown” just so that he, along with the other members of the child army can have the courage to be able to kill their fellow countrymen and slaughter entire towns who stand in their paths. In order to portray his struggles in the army, Ishmael uses the dramatic elements of memories explained using flashback, dialogue, and first-person narration in order to establish the theme of the memoir being how war causes for a child to lose its innocence. The transition shown in the memoir illustrates how the title of the novel, A Long Way Gone, was chosen because it demonstrates how he is a long way gone psychologically, emotionally, and physically, from the child that he was when the memoir begins to the soldier that he is forced to become.
The environment made getting food and water very difficult. There is a lack of recourses in Sudan. Finding food was a regular struggle for Salva during his journey. He got so hungry that “he couldn't even talk, he was too weak and hungry”(24). Another dangerous part about the environment, or mother nature, was the lion country. Salva and his group had to travel through a hot area full of lions. The lions could have taken Salva, just like they took Marial. The lions were a large threat, “A lion had been hungry enough to approach the group as they slept”(40). They had made it out of lion country, but the next thing that they had to make it through was the Akobo desert. This desert was very hot, and had little to no water. This made it very difficult for continue on. There were also hurtful pants in the desert, like thorns, “Thorns gored his feet”(52). Mother nature made the journey very difficult for
Uncle was there for Salva, he fed him and gave Salva a friend and someone to take care of him. Uncle helped Salva a lot like for example, Park states that “None of the travelers had money or anything of value to trade, so they had to beg for food. The exception was Uncle: the fishermen gave him food without having to be asked...Uncle shared his food with Salva… the sugar-cane juice soothed the sharpest edge of Salva’s hunger”(Park,47). Uncle shared his food with Salva and if he didn’t share with Salva, Salva would have not survived. Uncle was a key aspect of Salva’s survival, without Uncle everyone including Salva would die of starvation. Uncle also helped with managing Salva’s water supply. Uncle needed to be there for Salva, to help him with tough decisions that were to complicated for a young child. Park observes, “‘No Salva’, he murmured. ‘You are too small,and not strong enough yet. Without water you will not survive the rest of the walk. Some of the others-they will be able to manage better than you’”(Park,58). Salva was originally going to share his water with the other people who were about to die but Uncle stopped him because without his water he wouldn’t be able to survive. Uncle basically saved Salva’s life because he warned him not to waste his water, but to conserve
Persistence pushed him to face his fears and continue the walk. In the middle of the walk to the camp, Salva watched his uncle get robbed and killed. Salva’s self-confidence diminished. On top of his insecurity, the group he traveled with complained about how the Salva was a waste to their limited food supply and abandoned him. However, Salva realized, “There is no one left to help me”.
A Long Walk to Water is a Realistic Fiction book that can be about Determination and it is made by Linda Sue Park. Nya is the main female character, and she has to fetch water everyday and it takes 8 hours of the day to get water and come back. Nya sometimes has to move to a lake during dry season and still has to get water, Nya. also doesn’t get to go to school or learn. Salva is the main male character, the part where Salva lives has been having war and Salva has to get to a refugee camp in Ethiopia along the way Salva meets a boy named Mariel and he finds his uncle, he makes it to a camp but a couple years later the government is falling and they have to go to another camp. Later on Salva got to go to New York and live with a new family.
An attention-grabbing story of a youngster’s voyage from end to end. In “A LONG WAY GONE,” Ishmael Beah, at present twenty six years old tells a fascinating story he had always kept from everyone. When he was twelve years of age, he escaped attacking the revolutionaries and roamed a land-living rendered distorted by violence. By thirteen, he’d been chosen up by the government military and Ishmael Beah at nature a gentle young boy, bring into being that he was accomplished of really dreadful deeds. Few days later on the rampage he is unrestricted by military and referred to a UNICEF rehabilitation centre, he wriggled to re-claim his humankind and to re-enter the biosphere of non-combatants, who seen him with terror and distrust . This is at preceding a story of revitalisation and hopefulness.
The external conflict changes sal because Since Sal’s mom has gone missing and never came back and might never come bake Sal has changed in many ways than she was before. She was able to handle more than she could before in the sense of emotion blows from external forces . One external force that in a major way is when Sal’s mother left sal and never came back. That made Sal feel depressed and sad. Sal even said that she was allergic to blackberries but she wasn’t they just reminded her of her mom and she was trying to stop thinking about her mom’s death and how she was never coming back. After that her dad kept chipping at the wall and he found a hidden fireplace. He showed Sal and she was surprised that was in the wall. Then the time came where Sal and her father moved to the city. The next external force that changed Sal was when her dad moved her to the city and she didn’t like it, because there was no swimming hole and it was not
One of those challenges was crossing the Gilo River, as Salva thought, “Swollen by the rains, the Gilo’s current would be merciless. The Gilo River was well known for something else, too. Crocodiles” (75). After finally reaching a refugee camp, the Ethiopian government collapsed, so people came in shooting at all the refugees, forcing them to cross the death-seeking river. Sudan is a desert, therefore meaning that it is excruciatingly dry and unbearably hot, so everyday Salva thought, “...his body cried out for huge gulps of thirst-quenching, life-giving water” (53). Salva was lucky if they could find water, clean water especially; but after Uncle’s death, he would be even more lucky if the group shared it with him. Lion Country was an obstacle too; one that Marial didn’t survive. “Salva, we will soon be out of Lion Country” (41). Uncle had told Salva what is said in the quote above, and it happened- him and Salva had survived Lion Country. Although Salva encountered life-threatening obstacles, he