Synopsis “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” written by William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer. This book was published in 2009 and became very popular because it tells the true story of William Kamkwamba about how he overcame poverty and a lack of education by inventing a wind turbine that produces electricity for his village in Malawi. This book not only tells William’s inspiring story, but also provides deep insight into life in Malawi and the challenges faced by the local community. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” tells the true story of William Kamkwamba, a boy from Malawi who overcame poverty and a lack of education by finding a way to generate electricity for his remote …show more content…
Using books he found in the library, William learned about wind energy and how to make a simple wind turbine. He collected used items such as pipe pieces, wind pipes, and other components and finally succeeded in building a wind turbine that could generate electricity for his village. When his wind turbine successfully generated electricity for the first time, William and his village received widespread recognition. William then started assembling the various pieces of equipment he needed to make the water pump work. One of the components he needs is a bicycle. Unfortunately, when William asked for permission to use his father’s bicycle, he was refused. Meanwhile, the drought in Malawi is getting out of control. Famine really occurred and caused many residents to rob each other to get food. This situation also made people start leaving Malawi one by one in the hope of being able to get food elsewhere. William then started assembling the various pieces of equipment he needed to make the water pump work. One of the components he needs is a bicycle. Unfortunately, when William asked for permission to use his father’s bicycle, he was
Now that they have overcome each challenge by persevering, their lives change for the better. Now having easy access to clean water, Nya and the rest of the village will prosper. Nya’s village will now be able to evolve as a village from having clean water. Now that Salva’s life has changed, he is able to change the lives of others by building wells in their village. In fact, Salva was able to change the life of Nya and her village. Linda Sue Park hopes that readers will take away that change can be for good or
In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba, modern concepts such as government and deforestation had negative effects on the lives of the people in William’s community. While government works such as ADMARC and ESCOM have potential to be beneficial to William’s community, in practice, the government does not make them accessible enough to William’s people; thus, they do not serve much use. Furthermore, the government is corrupt, exacerbating the issue: “President Muluzi’s people had sold all our surplus grain for profit … Millions of kwacha were missing, and no one in the government was taking responsibility” (87). The government is keeping these resources for themselves as opposed to making them available to the people. Government,
This is the story of one farmer's family, driven from their fields by natural disasters and economic changes beyond anyone's control and their great journey in search of peace, security, and another home.'
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a book written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer and was published in 2015. This non-fiction narrative details the journey that Kamkwamba took to create a wind turbine from scrap materials to supply power to his small village in Malawi. He accomplished this feat in 2001 using a book entitled Using Energy to learn about wind turbines. Because of his ingenuity, he was invited to host a TED talk in 2007 and was accepted into Dartmouth University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental studies in 2014. Mealer, co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, helped Kamkwamba turn his story into a book, writing it from Kamkwamba’s perspective.
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.
In The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, William Kamkwamba explains how he created electricity for those who have never imagined the power of it. Since science was not well taught, William and most Malawians believed in Magic from a young age. When William was a teenager, he started to wonder how things worked and was frustrated because nobody had answers. This sparked an interest in electronics, and he began fixing radios. When fixing radios, they needed a form of power. The problem was that electricity was provided by a turbine from the Shire River, which was South of William’s village. The river would often get flooded with soil and garbage, requiring costly maintenance. Maintenance meant power cuts and a raise for the price of electricity. This
In the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a boy named William and his family struggle through challenges in their small village in Africa. They must face the reality of hunger and illnesses such as malaria and cholera. Although while all this is happening William has a bright mind and takes up an interest in science, but cannot go to school due to the fees. He begins to learn about how to build and re-wire certain electrical devices. With this in mind, William addresses the problem of not having power throughout his village.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” We can all agree on some level with this statement, but what if you didn't have access to education? What would you do if all you wanted to do was learn, but the ability to go to school was taken from you? In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William must rely on his ability to solve problems with what he has when his education is taken away from him, and proves with his success, that resourcefulness is more important than education.
In the autobiography “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” the main character William Kamkwamba is divergent compared to everyone else in Malawi. William reads about windmills and falls in love with science. While the village calls him crazy, William is designing a way that his small village will be able to enjoy luxuries such as electricity and running water. William never once gave up, he accomplished just what he said he was going to do. He is beyond determined, Kamkwamba found every single piece to accomplish his goal. William is percipient, he was able to understand things nobody else could. As well. William was inspiring… he made something life changing out of nothing. These were significant characteristics in what represents who William is.
He had gone to be early, woke up the next morning none the wiser to what had happened that night. His folks lived out in the hills and were a bit isolated, and he had helped his parents with a farm which was about twenty-five miles out of Atlanta. When the world went dark, they really weren’t affected so much. They routinely lost power and had a generator in a heavy metal shed, along with three full fifty-five gallons of fuel only for the generator. They were smart enough to have invested some time ago in solar panels. They had a well, which supplied them with water, and had a basement where they stored a lot of their food, at least for a few months, in the event of a
HIs town in Malawi is facing a time where it’s hard to get food and water so people are dying from starvation and dehydration. He copes with this obstacle by building two windmills that are able to pump water for irrigation and give out electricity so people can watch tv and charge their phones and other things. In the text it states,” He’s currently working on a design for a windmill powerful enough to pump water from wells and provide lighting for Masitala, a cluster of buildings where about 60 families live”(pg.519). In other words, this shows that William Kamkwamba is helping other towns with being able to survive by going there and building windmills for
Malawi, a small, impoverished African country, constrains its people to a life of farming and lack of science. William Kamkwamba recollects on the adversity that he faced growing up in this community in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, in which he, like others, suffers from a lack of education, money, and food. However, William is able to find opportunities to improve the situations that he is forced to deal with. Unable to afford schooling, he studies in the library instead. He uses what he learns to take what most would consider junk, a create a windmill. Also, throughout this time, the famine forces him to look in unlikely places to find food sources. Similar to him, the teachers in his community endure a lack of supplies and continue to
William Kamkwamba is a very unique person with a more incredible story. William’s personality is the type that makes him persevere through the tough times in Malawi, which is a village located in Africa. William is also the type to work for what he wants. During the story, “ The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind “, William shows several times that if he wants something badly enough, he will be determined to get it. One last trait that William has is that he never wants to give up. The fact that he never wants to give up makes him determined to persevere through the tough times in Africa. William has three very important personality traits which helped him be in the position he is in today as a successful man, instead of being like most of the
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a New York Times bestselling novel that tells the story of William Kamkwamba and how he changed thousands of lives. Knowing he had no other choice, William searched eagerly for ways to save his small Malwiam village from drought. Going against all traditions and common beliefs, he looks to science books for answers. He is brutally mocked and bullied for his inventions until everything changes and he provides the power for the whole village. In this biography, multiple key themes are explored such as innovation, tradition, and selflessness.
Dave started walking home. The winter was the worst time of the year for him. He had tons of paper work, and not enough light to work with. The generator he was able to afford could only power a small wattage of lights and it simply was not enough to work with. My eyes are already bad enough, he thought as he pulled off his glasses to clean the snow from the lenses. Dave readjusted his hat to better cover his face and slid the bifocals back on his nose. Snow crunched under his feet as he trudged home. It was a particularly dead night and not even the moon dared to show his face. He had no car's headlights to light his path. All he had was the occasional street lamp, ...