Clementine Warimiya In 'The Girl Who Smiled Beads'

Saakheb Hussain

Mrs. Mulligan

Blue 3 English

January 7th, 2023

Clementine’s Personality

Our personalities are defined by the experiences we have throughout our lives. Many still hold onto the grief and regret they attained many years ago. Some are traumatized and horrified by events that they have witnessed in the past. A person that has experienced this is Clementine Warimiya in Elizabeth Weil’s The Girl Who Smiled Beads. She has experienced firsthand tragedy and loss in the face of genocide in her homeland of Rwanda. The suffering she endured, the protection of her elder sister, Claire, and even the genocide itself are all factors that contribute to Clementine’s personality and have shaped her into the fine adult she has become.

However, Clementine held onto part of her identity by using other parts of her. One of these things was her hair, as few other kids in the camp had hair. As the lack of showering took its toll on Clementine, she slowly developed the lice until a fateful day. Clementine narrates, “Claire walked me over to a man in camp who had a razor, and he shaved my head. Almost all the kids in the camp were bald. I had not wanted to be like them. I wanted to be special. I cried for days.” (44) Because of the anguish that she suffered when she was younger, Clementine became a lot more grateful growing up. Living with Thomas’, she was awe-struck when she found out she was able to stay in her own room and even requested to be in a smaller one. She never takes anything for granted and accepts the small things humbly. The harsh past she lived through carved out a place for gratefulness in her personality.

Because she didn’t have her parents around most of her life, Clementine viewed her elder sister Claire as her main guardian. She didn’t oppose Claire too much and Claire was always very protective of Clementine. Claire was a determined woman who didn’t let others get in her way or shy away

It undeniably affected her life in the sense that it took her away from her parents and caused her to live astray for many years growing up. However, even after moving to America and becoming a functioning member of society, some people still view her as just a refugee. When you look at someone you know as a refugee or who comes in refuge from a hard place, you don’t tend to think that they are anything but a refugee. This applies to Clementine as she is labeled and even commented on being a refugee even with all the progress she’s made. An example of this is when she spoke on the panel for Refugee week. After she was done speaking, one of her co-panelist, a billionaire, had something to say to her. Clementine narrates, “Then, midway through the evening, another one of my co-panelists, a big mensh-y billionaire, turned to me asked: “So how does it feel to be one of us?” I recoiled… One of us —- what did that mean? One of the rich people? One of the white people? One of the people who’d never been kicked out of a kingdom?... “Actually, I’d rather you ask me how I got to sit here,” I said… “Ask me about my journey,” I said. “Ask me why I’m sitting here—-what do I know that other refugees don’t know, that people suffering from homelessness don’t know. I hacked into your system.” (243,244). Clementine wants to be seen as someone other than a refugee and someone that is brought from