Analysis Of William Kamkwamba's The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

In the amazing story “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” the author tells his childhood tail. William Kamkwamba lives in a small country called Malawi. Williams family and friends make their living off of the land. Planting, selling, and harvesting everything they can. When planting season came along Williams country was struck with horrible rain which flooded the seed filled fields. Famine and disease struck his loved ones, friends, acquaintances and even his dog. Growing up Williams parents taught him about magic and witches. He was raised to believe in these things so science has been always a mystery to the boy, but as money grew scarce William was forced to drop out of school. He began taking trips to the library and found himself particularly interested in the subject science. Using what he had taught himself, he finds a way to help his family and potentially his own country. William Kamkwamba is determined, creative, and intelligent.

As William began to scan the shelves of the library his eyes set focus on one special book.

This book was called Explaining Physics. This sprouted his idea to build a windmill. “I’d never built anything like it before, but I knew if windmills existed on the cover of that book, it meant another person had built them” (Kamkwamba, 169). William was not exactly sure how he was going to make this. However, he was sure that if someone had done it before, he could too. Later on in the book, William is in the scrap yard looking for material for his project. Some kids from the school across the street say he's weird and crazy. Despite the fact, Kamkwamba does not stop searching (kamkwamba, 189). William is very determined to build his

object.
William lives in a small country. Unfortunately, because of this, he had to find all of his own materials and use his resources. Doing so, William used an old bicycle for one of his parts. “My plan was to cut the entire crankset off a bike to reduce the size, while leaving the back wheel intact” (Kamkwamba, 175). A few pages after, he searches for an important part of turning his old home into knew. A light switch! Using his creative mind, he cut out little buttons of rubber out of his old shoe (Kamkwamba, 214).
As Williams family began losing money, William was forced to drop out of school. That meant he has to work hard. “For the next three weeks, I began a rigorous course in independent study, visiting the library in the mornings, and spending the afternoons reading in the shade” (Kamkwamba, 161). It was not easy for him to read the books he found. He worked at it and used context clues. The more he read, the smarter and more intelligent he became.
What is William Kamkwamba up to today you may ask? Now, William is working with a non-profit organization and with the UNC school of Information and Library Science. He works with the to make eGranary modules for students. William is helping the non-profit organization to “tackle the Know-do gap”(UNC School of Information and Library Science). William want to help students learn more things that are not just for the exams. With this experience he believes the students can help build their community.