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Character Analysis: A Long Walk To Water

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Try to imagine having to flee your home because of war, or having to deal with the grief of losing your entire family, best friend, and watching your uncle die in front of your eyes, or living through a genocide that killed 2 million people. Now imagine doing that before you were even 13 years old. In A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the book follows 11 year-old Salva trying to escape war in his home of southern Sudan. He tries to escape The Sudanese Civil War to Ethiopia first, and then to Kenya. During A Long Walk to Water, Salva faces and overcomes many hardships like the civil war, dangerous animals, and harsh living conditions.
The first hardship that Salva faced was the Sudanese Civil War that raged on around him. The Sudanese Civil War began in 1983 and was a fight over the religion of Sudan. In the north the government wanted all of Sudan to practice Islam, but in the south many people wanted to follow many different tribal religions. The war killed so many people that it was declared a genocide. According to page 6, “Most of the people who lived in the north were Muslim, and the government wanted all of Sudan to become a Muslim country.” In the next paragraph it says “But the people in the south were of different religions and did not want people to be forced to follow Islam.” …show more content…

During chapter 5, Salva and Mariel walk into the land of the Atuot people which was riddled with lions. On page 31, “Their [Atuot] region was inhabited by large herds of antelope, wildebeest, gnus - and the lions that preyed on them.” At the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7, it is revealed to the reader that Mariel was killed by a lion, and because of this Salva was horribly paranoid and terrified. On page 41 it states that, “... The lion could easily have crept close without being seen…” Since it was so dark out all the men on watch couldn’t see the lion as he crept up and attacked

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In the book, A Long Walk to Water, a universal theme presents itself when the reader realizes that perseverance and hope will get you through the worst of times. Nya and Salva, the main characters, have to go through terrible journeys through the desert of Sudan, for water and for freedom. When war comes to Salva’s home land, he is forced out of Village and forced out of his home country, in order to achieve freedom. After years of walking and living in refugee camps, Salva found a family in America. Although, Salva didn’t stay there for long.

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714 Words | 3 Pages

First, the text mentions that around 17,000 young Sudanese boys fled from Sudan after being separated from their families when a civil war began, and survived a total of a 1,000-mile journey. The Lost Boys traveled a long, challenging route to safety.

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1244 Words | 5 Pages

Linda Sue Park's novel A Long Walk to Water tells the story of Salva, a young South Sudanese boy living through and experiencing the effects of the Second Sudanese Civil War. Throughout the story, Salva is shown to barely make it out of many life-threatening scenarios on his way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Despite these challenges, Salva manages to make it to the camp and is eventually resettled in the United States. In A Long Walk to Water, Salva proves that resources such as food and water, support from others, and luck are incredibly important to survival. Salva used many different resources to his advantage to survive the war.

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Compare and Contrast Essay Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to have everything that you know and love suddenly be ripped away from you by the outbreak of a civil war? Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk To Water narrates the stories of victims of the Sudanese Civil War and their hardships. This war displaced many people and orphaned several thousands of children. “The Lost Boys of Sudan” by UNICEF tells the tale of the young boys who suffered from this war.

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In the country of Sudan, there is a region about the size of France called Darfur. In 1989, Omar al Bashir took control of the Sudanese government. When conflict between the African farmers in Darfur and the Arab nomads arose, the African farmers looked to their

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1598 Words | 7 Pages

Adapting To Challenging Environments In A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, “Time Trip: Sudan’s Civil War” by Scholastic, Salva’s Bio” and “Water for South Sudan: Salva’s Story”, many events that happened in Sudan and how people adapted to their challenging environment are shown. The characters I will focus on are Salva, Nya, Salva’s Uncle, the Lost Boy’s, and Sudanese people in general. The main point I will focus on is that individuals adapt in challenging environments by taking small steps to complete a big task, moving from one place to another, and taking advantage of the current environment and it’s resources. The author uses several literary devices, including a plot, characters, images, language, and other things to show how Salva,

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The Sudanese government and army are killing Darfurese because they rebelled against them. The government sent the Janjaweed( a group of people who lived there ) to go kill all who rebelled against them and torture them and cause as much chaos as

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1559 Words | 7 Pages

In the Darfur genocide, similar measures have been taken as military groups seized control of the governments and began a path of destruction and damage. Before this series of conflicts, ethnic, religious, and economic disparities existed between tribes and classes in Sudan. It was only in 1989 that tensions rose significantly, as the National Islamic Front seized control of the government. Following this coup, a militant group known as the Janjaweed began to terrorize the area of Darfur, killing its ethnic people and destroying property. In this act, the resources were almost completely depleted, leaving the people famished and displaced.

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200 Words | 1 Pages

The Lost Boys of Sudan This page was about the boys that walk to the unknown because of a civil war. The villages were attacked at night, 26,000 boys escaped the village and survived, their families and sisters probably survived, died, or were enslaved. The boys walked for 14 years without food and water, and all they had to eat was leaves, berries, or mud. A few boys got exhausted and died from starvation or dehydration from walking for so long. The boys went to a few refugee camps, but they had to leave because they were attacked by government tank attacks, some either drowned, got shot, or got eaten by crocodiles.

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. In the Year of No Rain by Alice Mead, there was a civil war between North and South Sudan. In South Sudan, 1989 people could not have as much food as people in America, because of drought . The theme the author chose for this story is be grateful for what you have.”

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Darfur was mainly non-Arab and they said that the government was ignoring their needs. As a result in 2003, they attacked government buildings, which led to the creation of the Janjaweed (Arab militia). The Janjaweed killed thousands of people, destroyed villages, and made others flee the country. This violence never ended and is still going on to this day.

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Waal discusses the divergent identities of the Arabs and Africans in Sudan. The civil war in southern Sudan, Darfur, has plagued the country for decades. The power dynamics within the state consist of a ruling Arab class that dominates from the north. This population seeks to assimilate and project their absolute dominance in the South. First, Waal gives an overview of the historical context of how the various identities within Darfur and other parts of Sudan have emerged.

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Darfur is geographically situated in the westernmost province of Sudan (North). The region has been rocked by constant civil wars that generated feelings of hatred between different ethnic groups in the region and frequent crisis, which was humanitarian in most cases that attracted the international and regional organizations concern since 2003. The Darfur region was an arena of violent clashes between African tribes namely Fur, Mazalit, and Zaghwa and Arabian tribes. This unmediated and unsolved conflicts turned into one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

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Political marginalisation played an even more important role in the instigation of the conflict. In Sudan there is inherent disunion between the ‘African’ Sudanese and the ‘Arab’ Sudanese. The divisions between the Sudanese were further entrenched due to discriminatory administrative policies spanning Sudan’s history. Traces of these policies can be found in Ottoman rule and the Condominium (consisting of the separative policies administered under which Britain rule of the south).

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782 Words | 4 Pages

General The country’s history is interwoven with slavery, Ottoman oppression, British colonization and old Sudanese oppression. The Country became peaceful in 2005 - after decades of civil war - when the comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was ratified. In this agreement, South Sudan gained independence during the January 2011 referendum. South Sudan became a sovereign state officially on 9 July 2011.

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