A Long Walk To Water Study Guide

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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 …show more content…

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

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