Child Of Dandelions By Shenaaz Nanji

1040 Words3 Pages

Fear is often a determining factor when we make decisions. This is what happens multiple times in the book Child of Dandelions, by Shenaaz Nanji. This is especially true, with fear sometimes being lifesaving for many characters. The main protagonist, Sabine, is leading a privileged life, until Uganda’s new dictator, Idi Amin, imposes a new rule forcing all Indians to leave Uganda within 90 days. Sabine’s family is legally Ugandan, although they are of Indian heritage because her grandparents immigrated from India. But Sabine's mom is afraid and knows that they must leave anyway because she senses danger. During the 90-day countdown, Sabine’s family faces real danger and makes the decision to leave the country. This is the better decision because …show more content…

She is angered when her mom says that she thinks he is dead and responds, “Uncle is alive - I know he is“ (106). A few chapters later when Sabine learns about a detective agency that can find any missing person, she decides to hire them. This shows that Sabine is now more determined to find her uncle after her mom seeded the fear that he was dead. However, Sabine’s uncle was not the only person that went missing. When Sabine and her best friend Zena, who is African, get into a fight, Sabine is angry at first, and locks herself in her room thinking, “Zena, broken hearts can be glued back, but cracks will always be there” (102). However, later when Sabine does not see Zena for a week at school, she fears that she will never see her again and regrets being angry at her as she says, “She missed Zena with every fiber of her being. Didn’t Zena miss her at all?”(103). So she repeatedly tried to call Zena. This shows how Sabine’s fear of Zena not missing her and not being in her life anymore drove Sabine to try to contact her. This is shown in particular in the last chapter when Sabine reunites with Zena on her way to leave the country, Zena tells Sabine that she will be marrying Idi Amin, and Sabine is at first angry that she is marrying the very person who caused her to …show more content…

Mama is worried right from the start of the 90-day countdown and never thinks that staying in Uganda is a good idea. At the beginning of the book, Sabine remembers her mom telling her that “One night a gang of Hindu thugs brandishing knives had broken into her family’s flat in Gujarat. They stripped Mama’s father and three brothers to check if they were circumcised, a sign that they were Muslims and then stabbed them to death”(21-22). This is clearly why Mama is always so scared that something will happen to her family and always wants to leave Uganda. Another example of Mama’s fear dictating her decisions is when while talking with Sabine she admits that she thinks Uncle is dead, saying that “It’s kismet, dear. We can’t fight fate” (106). The main reason why Mama immediately decides to accept her uncle’s death is once again, the fear of what happened when she was small, mainly because her parents died in the incident. The decision to accept fate also turns out to be the better one since later it is discovered that Uncle did die, and Mama is not too surprised about this. These are three pieces of evidence on how fear drives mamas to make decisions that ultimately affect her and her family for the better. As shown, fear is the driving force that leads Sabine’’s family to make the best overall decision for their safety. This theme throughout the book is so important that I wonder what would have happened

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