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A Long Walk To Water: The Impact Of Optimism On Salva's Life

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The impact of optimism on Salva’s life
By: Cambria Powell
In the novel A Long Walk to Water, we read about the stories of Salva and Nya as they grow up in South Sudan. Salva and Nya faced many challenges as they grew up during the war between North Sudan and South Sudan. In this essay I will be explaining how Salva’s optimism and hope was impacted throughout his journey. I will explain how Salva maintains a degree of optimism during his trek, what causes his optimism to wane and how his hope for his future is renewed. As you read this essay, you will read about the amazing story of Salva and how his optimism helped him throughout his journey.

In this novel, Salva perseveres and does his best to maintain a degree of optimism during his long trek across South Sudan and surrounding countries. During his journey there were many situations that put Salva’s optimism to the test. What motivated him to pursue his journey was the hope of seeing his family …show more content…

The first life-changing event that gave Salva hope was when he met an Aid Worker named Michael in a refugee camp in Kenya. Michael took the time to help Salva learn the basic English and volleyball. When Michael helped Salva he was full of hope and optimism that there was an improved future for him. The second life-changing event that gave Salva hope was when he went to New York. Salva had a fresh start. He had a new family, a chance to be educated, food to eat, clean water and everything else necessary to live a healthy life. The third and final life-changing event that gave Salva hope was the start of and the success of his organization called “Water for South Sudan”. The goal was to help villages in Sudan get clean drinking water. Salva’s organization gives him hope for his future because “Water for South Sudan” is helping thousands of people and drastically changing their lives for the

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In the novel A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the main character Salva survives many challenges due to his relationships, perseverance, and luck. Salva is at school when the civil war between Sudan and Southern Sudan reaches his village, and Salva is forced to run away, and to become a refugee. He befriends other refugees along the way, and he survives, regardless of all the challenges he is faced with. Salva’s relationships with other people along the way helped him to survive. Salva was left behind in a barn alone, and he befriended an older woman and helps out with chores.

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The first big problem he deals with is thinking his family is dead in this war and not being with them (Park, 22). The second big problem is Salva losing the close people he was with like his only friend Marial (Park, 40) and Salva's uncle (Park, 63). The next problem is when Salva had a near-death experience (Park, 78,79). The last problem is when Salva had to deal with terrible refugee camps (Park, 84). Even with all of these issues (and more), Salva continued his journey and persevered as by the end of the book, he was in a good situation, living in New York City (Park, 98, 99), performing talks for his company (Park, 109) and being the CEO of a company that was helping South Sudanese villages with their water problems (Park, 115).

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Salva had to go through a lot of harsh conditions before outrunning the war. There were plenty of times Salva thought he couldn’t continue and almost gave up all hope. But with determination, he was able to make it to safety. A moment where he showed determination was after Uncle had been shot to death. After that, no one Salva was traveling with thought Salva could not make it the rest of the journey to safety.

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Throughout the novel Salva demonstrates determination by pushing himself to do his best and not give up on anything no mater what is going on. One instance where Salva showed determination is on page 65, paragraph 4. “Marial was gone. Uncle was gone, too, murdered by those Nuer men right before salva’s eyes. Marial and uncle were no longer by his side,and they never would be again,but salva knew that both of them would have wanted him to survive,to finish the trip and reach the itang refugee camp safely.

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(43) This means Salva is an achiever because instead of not helping because he was a child, he helped all the adults and got reeds. Salva leads a group of thousands of boys to Kenya with his dedication and determination. The text states “I will get us safely to Kenya, he thought. No matter how hard it is” (81) This demonstrates Salva being a hard-worker because he is helping thousands of boys cross to Kenya.

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Another character in this book is Nya, an eleven year old Sudanese girl, who has to walk eight hours every day to get water for her family. She always keeps going, even though the way is hard because it is hot and the ground hurts to walk on. One example of hope and perseverance in A Long Walk to Water is how Salva never gives up. He is forced to leave his home and family in southern Sudan when his school is attacked, and goes on a long,

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Salva settled on the fact that “there is no one left to help me. They think I am weak and useless.-… They are wrong and I will prove it” (66) Salva no longer has anyone to support him and his group believe him to be incapable and unworthy. But Salva didn’t care one bit and was determined to get through the e trip alive. Salva fed on his uncle's words by saying to himself that “I only have to get through this day…”this day and no other” (73) Salva promises to focus on how to survive the refugee camp and to not plan for the future. Salva had been determined to survive for his deceased friend and uncle, he hadn’t let go of his will to live even through

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In the novel A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the main character, Salva Dut, faces many undeniably difficult situations that require him to show qualities of determination and perseverance. Salva was an eleven-year-old boy living in Southern Sudan when the Civil War broke out in 1985. This war was being fought over religion. Families were displaced and forced to live in refugee camps with people from different tribes. Salva endured more hardships to show perseverance such as walking in a desert, leading The Lost Boys, and finding his family.

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Salva grows from a confused and scared person to a confident person and a leader. In the beginning of the book Salva is Confused. Once Salva realized that the soldiers from the North were right outside his school he was confused. He was in a group of many kids and had no idea what to do.

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This was only possible because the group’s perseverance and they worked through their troubles. In conclusion, we should all persevere like Salva and Nya and we will be rewarded. In the end, Salva makes his dream a reality and Nya gets clean water and can go to school, but only because they worked hard to do whatever they needed to

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When Salva was walking with the only family he had, his uncle, they got robbed. The robbers captured his uncle and shot him right before Slava’s eyes (63). That tragic event would leave most people in shambles, but Salva, he kept going. Salva and Nya went through many hardships but they never let that get in their way. We can all learn a thing or two from these resilient

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Salva was thrown straight on into the Sudanese war to fend for himself, so he was all alone without his family. Later on Salva realizes what has happened

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While his uncle was alive, he helped Salva do everything throughout the journey. Even when he died nobody forgot him and Salva’s memory of his loving uncle gave him the strength to finish the journey. Food and water was the most important factor that led to his survival. He knew that there was barely any water in the desert and that it was hard to find food which taught him to treasure everything he was given. Throughout the book we are led to believe that Salva’s parents and siblings had passed away but he never lost hope that they were still alive.

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To sum up, Salva did make it through the stressful journey, Salva has been back and forth visiting his biological family and his forster family that lives in New York.. This journey lead him to the person he is today by inspiring people to not give up on a dream or idea they had. Today Salva is continuing a program for South Sudan “ Water For South Sudan” which builds wells in different villages in South

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