Character Analysis: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, the author, William Kamkwamba, used many different tools to create smooth transitions all throughout the book. There are many examples of these transitional moments… Firstly, on page 9, there were stories that William’s father passed down from generation after generation, William’s father having learned them from his grandpa. Just previously, his father had been telling the family a story. Immediately, it transitions from his dad telling a story, then to William talking about his family and how they obtained the many stories; it’s a great example of a transition from exposition to the very beginning of rising action. Another transitional moment could be seen on page 79, where during William’s time of struggle, he

Again, on page 48, a transition from exposition to rising action is shown. Previously, William had been clearly cheated. His first and only experience with “magic” left him with a sore eye and hands that throbbed from bad medicine. This then transitions directly from him being hurt by the magic, into the loss of a loved one. He no longer believed in the “magic”, and that is a start of rising action. On page 88, just as William and his family had expected, the price of maize- their main source of food- began going up in the first week of October from its normal price of 150 kwacha to 300. When this happened, some people began looking for other food. This moment transitions from when William’s family was predicting they would have to go hungry, to when the famine hit much worse than they’d expected. It shows progression to the climax when the famine was practically unbearable. However, the family later experienced a harvest. When the harvest was over, William could return to the scrapyard to continue to search for windmill pieces (page