How Does Salva Survive In A Long Walk To Water

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. He was able to survive because he had little food, water, and refuge. After Salva’s uncle is killed, he and the group continue the walk to the refugee camp.

The author describes this as "the camps were safe from the war". There were no men with guns or machetes, no planes with bombs overhead. On the evening of his very first day, Salva was given a bowl of boiled maize to eat, and another one the next morning.” (Park, 68). The refugee camps provided a safe place for refugees from Sudan and anywhere else; they provided basic needs, which helped Salva survive for the time he was there. Another time Salva had resources to help him was after being abandoned by his original group. Salva meets an old woman who takes him in for a few days and feeds him. After Salva approaches the woman, she says, “‘You must be hungry,’ she said. She stood and went into the house. A few moments later, she came back out and gave him two handfuls of raw peanuts. Then she sat back down again. Salva stayed in the woman’s barn again that night” (Park, 16–17). The old woman understands that Salva is lost and gives him some food because she wants to help